Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond: Grappling with Ghosts [Paperback]

This book traces how iconic writers - including Arthur Conan Doyle, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf, Wilfred Owen, and Aldous Huxley - shaped their response to the loss of loved ones in the First World War through their embrace of mysticism.Preface Introduction: Attachment, Mourning and Mysticism 1. F. W. H. Myers: Loss and the Obsessive Study of Survival 2. Spirit Soldiers: Oliver Lodge's Raymond and Christopher 3. From Parodist to Proselytizer: Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Vital Message' 4. Well-Remembered Voices: Mourning and Spirit Communication in Barrie and Kipling's First World War Narratives 5. 'Mourning, the War, and the 'New Mysticism' in May Sinclair and Virginia Woolf' 6. 'Purgatorial Passions': 'The ghost' (a.k.a. Wilfred Owen) in Owen's poetry 7. ''Misty-schism': the Psychological Roots of Aldous Huxley's Mystical Modernism' 8. After-life/After-word: the Culture of Mourning and Mysticism Bibliography Index

Johnson uses attachment theory and object relations theory sensitively to explore the ways in which early responses to separation and loss influence writers' visions of art. The use of contemporary psychoanalytic theory is particularly valuable when exploring the literary and cultural implications of bereavement following World War One. To my knowledge, Johnson's book may well be the first to take this approach . Johnson writes clearly and gracefully... Jeffrey Berman, Professor of English, University at Albany, SUNY, USA

In Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond, George M. Johnson brings the literature of trauma and loss vividly to life. Johnson deftly reveals the illuminating ways in which a host of British writers drew upon their fascination with mysticism and spiritualism in order to fuel a literary corpus for the ages. Kenneth Womack, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Penn State Altoona, USA

By resisting commonly held assumptions, Johnson demonstrates the vls`