Transmuting the Borderland: The Alchemical Revival and the Re-Enchantment of Science in Late-Victorian Fiction

While the Victorian era saw many empirical scientific advancements, late-Victorian fiction began to 'merge the chemist and biologist in the alchemist and the magician' (Nesbit, 'Five' 162); fiction provided a space in which science was imagined thoroughly re-enchanted through alchemical narratives, echoing the Victorian occult and spiritual resurgence. Existing research on alchemy has predominantly focused on early-modern revivals - including Eggert's (2015) and Yates's (2001) examinations of Renaissance alchemy in relation to Baconian empiricism - the alignment of late-Victorian discoveries like radioactivity with the alchemical revival (Morrison, 2007), and alchemy's ties to modern chemistry (Principe, 2012).

Recent work by Alder (2020) and Dobson (2022) begins to examine fictional representations of alchemy to understand its marginal status in Victorian culture, but fiction's role in bridging the perceived gap between science and mysticism at this juncture has not yet been fully illuminated. Attentive to alchemy's ambivalent role as both spiritual and chemical practice, I will build upon the aforementioned scholarship, demonstrating how fiction offered a blank canvas for imagining alchemical possibilities in cutting-edge science.

Through challenging scientific boundaries, alchemy re-enchants Victorian science, exploring its potential as a stabilising force amid change.

My project addresses the question: How does late-Victorian fiction articulate the revival of alchemy and portray its role in re-enchanting contemporary science? This question is underpinned by several objectives, which include establishing key motivations behind the resurgence of laboratory-based and Paracelsian-inspired (medical)alchemical practices during this period, and the employment of alchemical symbols and narratives to challenge mechanistic scientific worldviews.

Additionally, this project suggests porous scientific boundaries, establishing how parallels between alchemical transmutation and modern biotechnological advancements invite the scrutiny of ethical considerations in scientific experimentation and further our understanding of historical narratives influencing contemporary perspectives on science.

I will analyse Gothic, weird, and science-fiction texts by Victorian fin-de-siècle authors including non-canonical works by writers involved in alchemical and occult circles, along with canonical sources not yet explored for their alchemical elements. My preliminary corpus includes Corelli's A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), Doyle's The Doings of Raffles Haw (1891), Haggard's She (1887), Ingalese's Mata the Magician (1901), Jane's The Incubated Girl(1896), Machen's The Three Imposters (1895), and Nesbit's 'The Three Drugs' (1908) and 'The Five Senses'(1910).

Additionally, I will consult key archives (as detailed later in this application). The project's principal methodology involves close-reading these fictional and archival materials in tandem, informed by pertinent historical and biographical contexts.

Through dissemination at interdisciplinary conferences and workshops, including meetings of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and British Association for Victorian Studies, this project will forge connections across academic communities, offering insights into how individuals grapple with questions of nature, perfection, and the unexplainable in an era marked by scientific progress. Beyond academia, I aspire to explore alchemy's role in reconciling shifting worldviews through public talks at venues such as Treadwell's - the UK's foremost esoteric bookstore - and Birmingham Museum, realising how Victorian legacies manifest in contemporary debates on genetic manipulation, artificial life, and medical distrust.