Productive intermediality and the expert audiences of magic theatre and early film

Early cinema and the supernatural

“…Part of the fascination of the story of Robert-Houdin in Algeria is that it represents a closer-than-usual conjunction of what we might term "the two magics." One, allied with the Marabouts, is the magic designated by the conceptual field that includes (to borrow Peter Pels's list), "shamanism, fetishism, witchcraft, the occult, mana and taboo -that was predominantly made to define an antithesis of modernity: a product of illusion and delusion that was thought to recede and 63 For an exploration of the idea of the expert audience in stage magic and film, see Kember (2010). disappear as rationalization and secularization spread throughout society" (2003 4, original emphasis). To Pels's list we might add "sorcery," the word favoured by Robert-Houdin (or of his translator) to connote performers making claims of legitimate magical powers.…”