This stimulating and wide-ranging book has far-reaching implications for the study of literature.

Clive Bloom examines the work of many key twentieth century theorists - including Freud, Lacan, Fourcalt, Demida and Barthes - tracing their preoccupation (often unrecognised) with the occult.

Through an exploration of daemonic compulsion in creativity, imagination and reading, this book attempts to reconcile traditional critical concerns about the nature of meaning with post-structuralist methods of analysis in order to explore textuality, sexuality and the psyche.

Topics range from Jane Austin to detective fiction and from Antonin Artaud to The Gospel according to St John in a thorough exploration of the subject. The emphasis throughout is one of theory to creative practice.