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Enchanted modernity, Anglicanism and the occult in early twentieth-century : Annie Moberly, Eleanor Jourdain and their “Adventure” revisited
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Schwartz, Laura (2017) Enchanted modernity, Anglicanism and the occult in early twentieth-century : Annie Moberly, Eleanor Jourdain and their “Adventure” revisited. Cultural and Social History, 14 (3). pp. 301-319. doi:10.1080/14780038.2017.1314576 ISSN 1478-0038.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2017.1314576
Abstract
In August 1901, two respectable, unmarried Edwardian ladies travelled backwards in time. On a sightseeing trip to the Court of Versailles, Annie Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain were transported back to 1792 where they encountered the soon-to-be-executed Queen Marie Antoinette. In 1911 they recounted their experiences in An Adventure, a book that was widely reviewed and ran to many editions. Throughout these episodes and their telling Moberly and Jourdain held the positions of Principal and Vice Principal of St Hugh’s Hall, one of Oxford’s newly established colleges for women students. Later historians and members of St Hugh’s tended to dismiss them as ‘potty’ or attempted to protect their reputations as pioneers of women’s education from (what was subsequently perceived to be) the embarrassment of An Adventure. This article revisits Moberly and Jourdain’s “Adventure”, historicising rather than pathologising or seeking to explain it away. Alongside the sceptical responses, there were many who believed Moberly and Jourdain, and the two women did not lose social or professional standing as a result of telling their story. In trying to understand why this should have been the case, the article draws upon two bodies of recent scholarship. Firstly, it examines An Adventure in light of work that has rejected older formulations of modernity as necessarily ‘disenchanted’, and instead argues for the blurring of boundaries between occult and scientific discourses. In many ways, the case of An Adventure exemplifies and furthers this thesis, showing how it was possible for two educated, professional, “modern” women to believe they had entered into “an act of memory” by Marie Antoinette that transported them backwards in time. Yet, while most scholarship interested in the relationship between modernity and enchantment focuses on the relationship between science and heterodox/occult religions, An Adventure brings another element to the discussion: orthodox Christianity, and the Anglican Church in particular. Moberly and Jourdain came from clerical families and were devout adherents of the Church of England. Their “Adventure” also, therefore, speaks to recent histories of Christianity in modern Britain, which have argued against an overly polarized and oppositional understanding of the relationship between Christianity and the occult, or Christianity and secular science, pointing to the churches’ capacity for adaptation and incorporation. The article traces the reception of An Adventure as a way to explore further the bases upon which such claims could be both made and judged as credible in a rapidly modernising early twentieth century Oxford. While highlighting the interconnections between the occult, Anglicanism and secular/scientific scholarship, the article argues that people at the time nevertheless carefully policed the boundaries of “legitimate” and “illegitimate” belief systems, a process informed by both gender and class.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Anglicans -- Oxford (England) -- 20th century, Church of England -- Oxford (England) -- 20th century, Occultism -- Oxford (England) -- 20th century | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Cultural and Social History | ||||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
ISSN: | 1478-0038 | ||||||
Official Date: | 19 June 2017 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 14 | ||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 301-319 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/14780038.2017.1314576 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 2 December 2016 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 31 January 2019 |
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