FLIGHT AND FANCY: ASTRAL TRAVEL IN CAVENDISH AND MILTON

Abstract

Astral Flight is the concept of metaphysical, out-of-body travel by or with the help of the soul. The concept has a rich history in spiritual thought and narrative fiction. This thesis investigates astral travel in connection with two early modern authors, Margaret Cavendish and John Milton, who existed in the same time period and produced near-simultaneous texts that include versions of astral travel. I will be studying four works by these authors: The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish and Paradise Lost by John Milton, along with three shorter poems by Milton: At a Vacation Exercise, “Elegy 5,” and “Mansus.” This study reads the texts closely to delineate the form and function of their representations of astral travel and spiritual projection, with reference to the levels of character, author, and audience. The research situates the small yet significant event of astral projection in relation to the early modern concept of “fancy,” and proposes connections to contemporary cultural forms, highlighting the extent to which these texts can be read as precursors to the later genres of science fiction or speculative fiction. This project also identifies different elements of the experience of astral flight on the level of gender, what loosely applies as the rules or conditions for astral travel (being in a sleep like state and having some sort of spiritual guide), and what comes after astral travel in terms of world building and world creation which opens many opportunities for creativity and imagination beyond the mundane.