Abstract
In this chapter I want to propose a Jungian reader theory which works by splicing Jungian definitions of the unconscious into traditional theories of reader-response. Such a Jungian reader theory draws upon Jung’s reinterpretation of alchemy as an essentially psychological process. The result is an ‘alchemical literary theory’ in Jungian terms. In turn, this theory can be employed in the feminist critiques of Jungian ideas by exploring Lindsay Clarke’s profoundly Jungian novel, The Chymical Wedding.
As is shown by the texts and their symbolism, the alchemist projected what I have called the process of individuation into the phenomena of chemical change …
Jung, CW121
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
For an introduction to alchemy, see Titus Burckhardt, Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul, trans. William Stoddart (London: Stuart & Watkins, 1967), especially pp. 11–22.
Jung’s views on alchemy have been influential on writers such as Alan McGlashan in The Savage and Beautiful Country (London: Chatto & Windus, 1966), and his influence is considered in A.J. Harper, ‘Mysterium Conjunctionis: On the Attraction of “Chymical Weddings” ‘, German life and Letters, 47, pt 4 (1994), 449–55. This article contains an appreciative discussion of Jung’s alchemy in Lindsay Clarke’s The Chymical Wedding.
Wolfgang Iser, The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response (London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978).
Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Jung on Alchemy (London: Routledge, 1995), introduction, p. 20.
Lindsay Clarke, The Chymical Wedding, A Romance (London: Jonathan Cape, 1989). Page references are incorporated into the chapter.
Mary Anne Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery with a Dissertation on the more Celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers Being an Attempt Towards the Recovery of the Ancient Experiment of Nature (London: Trelawney Saunders, 1850), reprinted with an introduction by Leslie Wilmshurst (London: J.M. Atkins, 1918), this edition reprinted by Yoga, 1976.
M. Esther Harding, Psychic Energy: Its Source and Its Transformation, with a foreword by C.G. Jung, Bollingen Series X (USA: Bollingen Foundation, 1948, second enlarged edition, 1963), pp. 453–4.
Diana Basham, The Trial of Woman: Feminism and the Occult Sciences in Victorian Literature and Society (London: Macmillan, 1992), p. 108.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Susan Rowland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rowland, S. (1999). A Jungian Reader Theory: Alchemy and The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke. In: C. G. Jung and Literary Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230597648_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230597648_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-41101-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59764-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)