This dissertation explores how Victorian fantastic fiction reimagined an experience central to its era: the full range of affective responses to religious pluralization, from devotion to disillusionment. Indeed, "Extravagant Practices" argues that authors of the fantastic gave voice to late Victorian Britain’s dawning awareness of creeds outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. Toward the close of the nineteenth century, three interrelated developments fueled this awareness: unprecedented proximity to Asian traditions, made possible by imperial circuits of knowledge; comparativist accounts of world religions, which stressed their hidden unity; and the array of esoteric spiritual movements, such as Theosophy and occultism, in which “Christian Britain” took increasing interest. These developments exerted powerful but conflicting pressures on believers and freethinkers alike. In yoking supernatural events to naturalistic detail, authors such as Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Bram Stoker found a way to capture the sometimes exhilarating, often disorienting experience of exploring religious difference at the fin de siecle. Far from offering mere escapes from disenchanted modernity, then, the fantastic fictions surveyed in this dissertation illumine the complex religious lives of the late Victorians.

Originally presented as the author's thesis--Universität München, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed Jan. 21, 2010). Additional advisors: Cathleen Cummings, Heather McPherson, Mindy Nancarrow. Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-71).

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Recent years have seen an increase in alternative forms of religiosity and spirituality. In particular, a variety of alternative metaphysics and spiritualities are developing that explicitly integrate fiction, particularly fantasy, within their various paradigms. Such worldviews are notable in that they are not limited to the traditional realms of religious and spiritual engagement, but rather they extend comfortably into the worlds of contemporary popular and digital culture. This thesis is an exploration of the joint locales of fiction and new media as they relate to various forms of contemporary alternative metaphysics and spirituality. Starting with the particular case of the Otherkin, this thesis seeks to contextualize alternative beliefs that utilise fiction in relation to the broader cultural context within which they are occurring. This focus upon contextualisation emerges from the position that religious and spiritual ideologies that are heavily premised within popular culture will likely resist etic interpretation unless viewed in light of other contemporary non-religious cultural behaviours. This thesis endeavours to achieve three main goals: firstly, the provision of general information about the Otherkin as an exemplary instance of this confluence of themes; secondly, an exploration of parallel and intersecting behaviours and philosophies to be found within popular culture and occulture; and thirdly, to utilise an interpretative framework for such beliefs that does not require recourse to consumerist narratives. The discussion of alternative metaphysical beliefs and their situation finds its locus in the Otherkin; a loosely affiliated group of individuals who believe themselves to be in some way non-human. The types of creatures the Otherkin associate themselves with are sourced from numerous locales, from ancient mythological and folkloric narrative through to contemporary films and games. By exploring the various representations of the entities as well as the locales within which they occur, this thesis tracks a path through fiction and mythology, fan cultures and world creation, and occulture and the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) (Writing) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1999.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Murdoch University, 2007. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Education. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-287).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-135). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of St Andrews, April 2007.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université d'Ottawa, 1997. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.