Gyorgy Szonyi - visiting Professor at Anglia Ruskin University for 2009 and honourary member of the Society, will be giving the following Leverhulme Lectures - all Cambridge Szeged Society members are welcome to attend
LEVERHULME LECTURES
6 May, 2009, 17:30,
David 016 Lecture Theatre,
Anglia Ruskin University,
Representations
The lure of esotericism and occultism is clearly present in our postmodern
culture. The most visible forms of this attraction in our time – apart from
horoscopes in tabloid newspapers – are novels and feature films spanning
both “high art” and various forms of popular culture. In this talk I am not
going to deal with film or with cheap “airport paperbacks”, although their
examination would certainly touch upon an important aspect of the sociology
of late modern civilization. My aim is primarily to draw attention to how
mainstream literary fiction throughout the twentieth century has delighted in
recycling occult and esoteric themes. In this genre we mostly find (pseudo)
historical (meta)fictions which tend to locate their plot and heroes in the time
of the Renaissance. One should not be surprised by this, since the period
which has been credited with “the birth of the individual” was also “the Age
of the Great Magi.”
The lecture looks at some English, German, Hungarian and Italian novels
which recycle occult and esoteric themes and tries to answer the question:
“How can we, if at all, explain the lure of the occult and the esoteric in our
postmodern, industrialized world?”
For further information visit:
www.anglia.ac.uk/renaissance or contact
Magda Generalczyk, English and Writing Administrator
Tel: 0845 196 2080
email: Magda.Generalczyk@anglia.ac.uk
Each lecture will be followed by a small reception wirth refreshments
