A Country for the Savant: Paganism, Popular Fiction and the Invention of Greece, 1914-1966
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v10i1.21Keywords:
Pagan, Greece, ClassicsAbstract
This essay explores the ways in which certain British writers reimagined Greece in the period 1914-66. It is especially concerned with the ways in which Greece represents a ‘pagan’ space in which characters encounter modes of living and belief far removed from those they are used to. With particular reference to John Buchan, Sarban, and Robert Aickman, the essay argues that the disparity between ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ Greece led writers into the deliberate fictionalisation of Mediterranean islands in search of a ‘paganism’ that may or may not actually exist.References
Aickman, Robert. ‘The Wine-Dark Sea’. 1968. The Wine-Dark Sea: A Collection. New York: Arbor House/William Morrow, 1988.
———. ‘Never Visit Venice’. Sub Rosa. London: Gollancz 1968.
Buchan, John. The Dancing Floor. 1926. Bampton: Three Rivers Books, 1982.
———. ‘The Grove of Ashtaroth.’ In The Best Supernatural Stories of John Buchan. Edited by Peter Haining. London: Hale, 1991.
———. Memory Hold-the-Door. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1940.
Buzard, James. The Beaten Track: European Tourism, Literature, and Ways to ‘Culture’ 1800-1918. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Clute, John. ‘John Buchan (1875-1940)’, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Edited by John Clute and James Grant. London: Orbis, 1997.
———. ‘Islands’. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.
Forster, E.M. Collected Short Stories. 1947. London: Penguin, 1982.
———. Maurice. 1971. London: Penguin, 1995.
Freeman, Nick. ‘Nothing of the Wild Wood?: Pan, Paganism and Spiritual Confusion in E. F. Benson’s The Man Who Went Too Far’. Literature and Theology 19, no. 1 (March 2005):22-33.
———‘The Shrineless God: Paganism, Literature and Art in Forties’ Britain’, The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies 6.2 (November 2004), 157-74.
Hillman, James. Re-Visioning Psychology. New York: Harper Row, 1977.
Hopkins, Keith. A World Full of Gods: Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Roman World. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999.
Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Lowrie, Andrew. John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier. London: Constable, 1995.
Jenkyns, Richard. The Victorians and Ancient Greece. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Machen, Arthur. Far Off Things. London: Martin Secker, 1923.
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Edited by. M. C. Howatson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Pemble, John.The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Sarban. Ringstones and Other Curious Tales. 1951. Carlton: Tartarus Press, 2000.
Symonds, John. The Great Beast: The Life and Magick of Aleister Crowley. St Alban’s: Mayflower, 1973.
Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room. Edited by Sue Roe. 1922. London: Penguin, 1992.
———. ‘Never Visit Venice’. Sub Rosa. London: Gollancz 1968.
Buchan, John. The Dancing Floor. 1926. Bampton: Three Rivers Books, 1982.
———. ‘The Grove of Ashtaroth.’ In The Best Supernatural Stories of John Buchan. Edited by Peter Haining. London: Hale, 1991.
———. Memory Hold-the-Door. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1940.
Buzard, James. The Beaten Track: European Tourism, Literature, and Ways to ‘Culture’ 1800-1918. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Clute, John. ‘John Buchan (1875-1940)’, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Edited by John Clute and James Grant. London: Orbis, 1997.
———. ‘Islands’. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.
Forster, E.M. Collected Short Stories. 1947. London: Penguin, 1982.
———. Maurice. 1971. London: Penguin, 1995.
Freeman, Nick. ‘Nothing of the Wild Wood?: Pan, Paganism and Spiritual Confusion in E. F. Benson’s The Man Who Went Too Far’. Literature and Theology 19, no. 1 (March 2005):22-33.
———‘The Shrineless God: Paganism, Literature and Art in Forties’ Britain’, The Pomegranate: The Journal of Pagan Studies 6.2 (November 2004), 157-74.
Hillman, James. Re-Visioning Psychology. New York: Harper Row, 1977.
Hopkins, Keith. A World Full of Gods: Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Roman World. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999.
Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Lowrie, Andrew. John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier. London: Constable, 1995.
Jenkyns, Richard. The Victorians and Ancient Greece. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Machen, Arthur. Far Off Things. London: Martin Secker, 1923.
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Edited by. M. C. Howatson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Pemble, John.The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Sarban. Ringstones and Other Curious Tales. 1951. Carlton: Tartarus Press, 2000.
Symonds, John. The Great Beast: The Life and Magick of Aleister Crowley. St Alban’s: Mayflower, 1973.
Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room. Edited by Sue Roe. 1922. London: Penguin, 1992.
Published
2008-10-03
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Freeman, N. (2008). A Country for the Savant: Paganism, Popular Fiction and the Invention of Greece, 1914-1966. Pomegranate, 10(1), 21-40. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v10i1.21
