The Chain of Things

Divinatory Magic and the Practice of Reading in German Literature and Thought, 1850–1940

by Eric Downing

First published:
21st century
Language: English

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Description

Description from Directory of Open Access Books

In The Chain of Things, Eric Downing shows how the connection between divinatory magic and reading shaped the experience of reading and aesthetics among nineteenth-century realists and modernist thinkers. He explores how writers, artists, and critics such as Gottfried Keller, Theodor Fontane, and Walter Benjamin drew on the ancient practice of divination, connecting the Greek idea of sympathetic magic to the German aesthetic concept of the attunement of mood and atmosphere. Downing deftly traces the genealogical connection between reading and art in classical antiquity, nineteenth-century realism, and modernism, attending to the ways in which the modern re-enchantment of the world—both in nature and human society—consciously engaged ancient practices that aimed at preternatural prediction. Of particular significance to the argument presented in The Chain of Things is how the future figured into the reading of texts during this period, a time when the future as a narrative determinant or article of historical faith was losing its force. Elaborating a new theory of magic as a critical tool, Downing secures crucial links between the governing notions of time, world, the "real," and art.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Alchemy and Hermeticism, Consciousness, mysticism, and metaphysics, Divination and oracles, Occultism and esotericism, and Ritual magic and grimoires.

Occultism and esotericism
Retained metadata contains “occult” in the subject metadata.
- “occult”· in subject
Ritual magic and grimoires
Controlled discovery queries from oapen matched “ritual magic”. Retained metadata contains “Magic” in the subtitle, “Magic” in the description, “Magic” in the subject metadata, and 2 additional metadata match(es).
- “ritual magic”· via OAPEN Library
- “Magic”· in subtitle
- “Magic”· in description
- “Magic”· in subject
- “Spells”· in subject
- “Magic”· in edition subtitle
Alchemy and Hermeticism
Controlled discovery queries from doab matched “alchemy”. Retained metadata contains “Alchemy” in the subject metadata.
- “alchemy”· via Directory of Open Access Books
- “Alchemy”· in subject
Divination and oracles
Retained metadata contains “Divination” in the description.
- “Divination”· in description
Consciousness, mysticism, and metaphysics
Retained metadata contains “Mysticism” in the subject metadata.
- “Mysticism”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Open-access license: CC-BY-NC-ND
Directory of Open Access Books
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Open-access license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

Edition	Date	Publisher	Language	ISBN	Access	Links
Divinatory Magic and the Practice of Reading in German Literature and Thought, 1850–1940 Directory of Open Access Books edition 366; Ithaca	2018	Cornell University Press; Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library	English	9781501715921 9781501715938	Open access	Directory of Open Access Books (opens in a new tab) OAPEN Library (opens in a new tab) OAPEN Library (opens in a new tab)