Abstract:

This article explores the lingering remnants of a late Victorian ‘paganism’ in Britain during the 1940s, and traces some of the cultural consequences of the meeting between this and the often propagandist concern with a mythic England seen throughout World War II. A loose network of literary texts, art works and films is examined in order to suggest that the 1940s is a pivotal decade between the relatively genteel and individualistic ‘pagan’ sympathies of the early twentieth century and the more systematic modes of allegiance that have characterized recent times. The article focuses in detail on Algernon Blackwood’s short story ‘Roman Remains’ (1948), Jocelyn Brooke’s novel The Scapegoat (1948), Powell and Pressburger’s film A Canterbury Tale (1944) and the art of Cecil Collins, chiefly The Vision of the Fool (1947).

Author: Nick Freeman