TY - CHAP
T1 - Performing fabulous monsters
T2 - Re-inventing the gothic personae in bizarre magic
AU - Taylor, Nicholas
AU - Nolan, Stuart
PY - 2015/4
Y1 - 2015/4
N2 - Bizarre magick is a form of performance magic that favours theatrical character, storytelling, overt allegory, symbolism and metaphor, and themes of the supernatural, fantastic, amazing and weird. While the form has its roots in Victorian stage magic, it realised itself as a movement in the 1970s through a counter-cultural reaction against the big boxes and card flourishes of a disenchanted, contemporary, mainstream stage magic. Bizarre magicians sought to re-enchant performance magic with the mysterious and the spiritual, (re)discovering meaning through storytelling and theatrical character.This chapter examines the adoption of popular Gothic representations in the stage persona of a number of key figures in bizarre magick. In performance, bizarre magick presents a complex series of meta-narratives within the form, often supplanting the literary in favour of popular Gothic (re)imaginings. These, often twice-removed, transformations/translations of classic and contemporary Gothic form and fiction are considered in the context of the bizarre performer's engagement, through both performance and theoretical writing, with the fabulously monstrous.
AB - Bizarre magick is a form of performance magic that favours theatrical character, storytelling, overt allegory, symbolism and metaphor, and themes of the supernatural, fantastic, amazing and weird. While the form has its roots in Victorian stage magic, it realised itself as a movement in the 1970s through a counter-cultural reaction against the big boxes and card flourishes of a disenchanted, contemporary, mainstream stage magic. Bizarre magicians sought to re-enchant performance magic with the mysterious and the spiritual, (re)discovering meaning through storytelling and theatrical character.This chapter examines the adoption of popular Gothic representations in the stage persona of a number of key figures in bizarre magick. In performance, bizarre magick presents a complex series of meta-narratives within the form, often supplanting the literary in favour of popular Gothic (re)imaginings. These, often twice-removed, transformations/translations of classic and contemporary Gothic form and fiction are considered in the context of the bizarre performer's engagement, through both performance and theoretical writing, with the fabulously monstrous.
KW - Nineteenth century literature
KW - Literary criticism
KW - Literary studies
KW - Magic
UR - http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719098123/
UR - https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1729w2c
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9780719089770
SN - 9781526123039
SP - 128
EP - 142
BT - Monstrous media/spectral subjects
A2 - Botting, Fred
A2 - Spooner, Catherine
PB - Manchester University Press
CY - Manchester
ER -