Merlin Coverley Bücher

Ghosts and specters, the eerie and the occult. Why is contemporary culture so preoccupied by the supernatural, so captivated by the revenants of an earlier age, so haunted? The concept of Hauntology has evolved since first emerging in the 1990s, and has now entered the cultural mainstream as a shorthand for our new-found obsession with the recent past. But where does this term come from and what exactly does it mean? This book seeks to answer these questions by examining the history of our fascination with the uncanny from the golden age of the Victorian ghost story to the present day. From Dickens to Derrida, MR James to Mark Fisher; from the rise of Spiritualism to the folk horror revival, Hauntology traces our continuing engagement with these esoteric ideas. Moving between the literary and the theoretical, the visual and the political, Hauntology explores our nostalgia for the cultural artifacts of a past from which we seem unable to break free.

The Art of Wandering is a history of that curious hybrid, the writer as walker. From the Ancient world to the modern day, the role of the walker continues to evolve, from philosopher and pilgrim, vagrant and visionary, to experimentalist and radical. Newly revised and updated edition. ...

London, more than any other city, has a secret history concealed from view. Behind the official facade promoted by the heritage industry, lies a city of esoteric traditions and obscure institutions, of lost knowledge and hidden locations. Occult London rediscovers this hidden history, unearthing the secret city and its forgotten inhabitants. Encompasses history from the Elizabethan age to today, and covers such varied topics as magic, Kabbalah, occult designs and occult organisations. Includes four walk routes and an A to Z of occult locations.

This book examines the origins of psychogeography in the Paris of the 1950s, exploring the theoretical background and its political application in the work of Guy Debord and the Situationists. Psychogeography continues to find retrospective validation in much earlier traditions, from the visionary writing of William Blake and Thomas De Quincey to the rise of the flaneur and the avant-garde experimentation of the Surrealists.

A guide to the London novel, starting with its origins in the Victorian metropolis and moving through to the present day and the revival of London writing. Includes examination of the Occult Tradition, London Noir, the Disaster Novel and the rise of Psychogeography and features both recognised classics and the work of lost London writers. From Bleak House to Hawksmoor, from Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde to White Chappell Scarlet Tracings, London has continued to generate a series of fantastic visions - Merlin Coverley traces their genesis and influence in this volume.