Explore 2,000 years of conspiracy in fiction.
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice
Fascination with the arcane is a driving force in this comprehensive
survey of conspiracy fiction. Theodore Ziolkowski traces the evolution
of cults, orders, lodges, secret societies, and conspiracies through
various literary manifestations--drama, romance, epic, novel,
opera--down to the thrillers of the twenty-first century.
Lure of the Arcane considers Euripides's Bacchae, Andreae's
Chymical Wedding, Mozart's The Magic Flute, and Eco's Foucault's
Pendulum, among other seminal works. Mimicking the genre's quest-driven
narrative arc, the reader searches for the significance of conspiracy
fiction and is rewarded with the author's cogent reflections in the
final chapter. After much investigation, Ziolkowski reinforces Umberto
Eco's notion that the most powerful secret, the magnetic center of
conspiracy fiction, is in fact "a secret without content."