Early science fiction and occultism
- Publication date
- Publisher
Abstract
This dissertation examines engagements between early science fiction (SF) and the body of
modern esoteric theories and practices often described as ‘occultism’. SF is often seen as an
imaginative extension of secular, empiricist science — the cultural form furthest from magic and
occult logic — but this research shows that science fiction shares many of the motivations and
perspectives of occultism. It argues that SF developed some of its central tropes and stylistics
from its nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century engagement with magical, mesmerist,
Spiritualist, and Theosophical currents, particularly their attempts to legitimate the paranormal
and supernatural by appealing to scientific discourse, methodology, and social authority. It also
examines a reciprocal phenomenon of influence in which SF’s tropes, themes, and imagined
worlds have been enfolded into occult traditions and other alternative religious movements.
Finally, this dissertation assesses how SF and occultism have been conjointly deployed to defend
and communicate marginal scientific theories and religious systems. This project develops a framework for analysing these intersections. It starts with case
studies of three authors — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Emma Hardinge Britten, and Marie Corelli —
each of whom generated SF from earnest communication and exploration of occult scientific
hypotheses in fiction. Each case study illustrates areas of intersection in which occultism and SF
influenced each other’s development, including a mutual affectation of scientific verisimilitude,
naturalisation of the supernatural, a preference for hypothesis over fact, and projection of
unknown forces and powers into the future. The final chapter expands scope to consider the
network of occult and science fictional engagement from 1860 to 1926, illustrating further areas
of intersection including an instinct for re-enchantment and a mediation of binaries constructed
along the lines of science versus religion. Finally, it examines the esoteric heritage of several key
tropes of science fiction: psionic powers, space exploration, and the extra-terrestrial