Occultus: The Hidden and Macabre in Literature and Film

What is it that unlocks the mysteries of the occult and makes them known to us? Occultus: The Hidden and Macabre in Literature and Film is an intellectually rigorous examination of esotericism, magic, and the macabre. The book uses film and literature to conduct an exploration of concepts such as secrecy, hiddenness, and how mystery is defused once it becomes widely understood. Moving away from a superficial investigation of things that go bump in the night, the book instead introduces readers to the occult tradition as intellectual history. The readings address how literature engages in the occult, magic in the Middle Ages, links between witchcraft and sexuality, and monsters as bodies on display.

The book encourages students to take a new view of familiar and unfamiliar works including the films Nosferatu and Det sjunde inseglet ( The Seventh Seal ) as well as literature like Malleus Maleficarum ( Hammer of Witches ) and Helmuth Krausser’s Melodien.

Occultus gives readers an exciting blend of the intellectual and the imagined. It is well suited to courses on occultism and meaning, religion and magic, and the occult in film and literature.

Francis Tobienne, Jr., is a medieval scholar, cultural critic, and professor of literature and writing at University of South Florida, St. Petersburg and Research Fellow at The Salvador Dali Museum. He is a Phi Beta Kappa Member and holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University. Professor Tobienne has authored or edited numerous books, articles, and book chapters including The Position of Magic In Selected Medieval Spanish Texts and the forthcoming Mandeville’s Travails: a Matter of Travel, Theory and Critical Method.