A History of Fairies: From Fearsome Gods to Friendly Guides with Cultural Historian Jason Lahman, Begins May 4
Seven Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, May 4 - June 15, 2025
2 pm - 4 pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
What is a fairy? A diminutive humanoid creature with insect wings, a shimmering gown, a magic wand, and the ability to bestow blessings, cast enchantments or fulfill wishes? This image is so wide-spread in modern cultures that, like unicorns, dragons and merfolk, the fairies have almost ceased to generate the kind of human responses that once upon a time included such emotions as primal terror, erotic ecstasy, trance-like euphoria, or total disorientation.
The fairy-folk of the past were not the small, friendly, or wish-fulfilling entities we know from our childhoods; they were often god-like, violent, shape-shifting and could command the fierce powers of the earth, the elements and the atmosphere. Unlucky humans could be ravished, maimed, killed, or carried away never to be seen again should they cross over into fairy territory, draw unnecessary attention to themselves, or show disrespect to these fantastical people. Fairy beings were connected to sacred sites, geographical anomalies, to dark magic and quite often to the dead. They could appear in any number of forms: shining lords and ladies parading on horseback, great dogs with luminous eyes, water-horses, seductive beauties, a green mist, dancing flames or even as someone’s deceased relatives.
In this class, we will be trace the history of the development of the current concept of the fairy following a variety of clues and submerged streams of cultural belief. Although the core focus in this class will be on the fairy as cultural phenomenon in Western European cultures, we will travel across the globe to meet a wide array of astounding fairy cousins from every clime. We will make note of their shared characteristics as well as the different solutions that humans have invented to deal with their sometimes troublesome, sometimes beneficial presence.
Over the course of six weeks of image rich lectures and in-class discussion, we will examine the relation of modern consciousness to this abundance of new fairy activity: occultism, the biological sciences, children’s literature, depth psychology, and the rise of mass media and cinema, all of which gave the fairy world renewed vitality, bringing them once again into human awareness, but also placing them in the closed perimeter of the human head, the skull-cave where modernity had confined the faculty of imagination. The fairy’s perceived nature as a marginal, dangerous, and even abject figure has often provided a name and metaphor for populations seen as liminal or labeled perverse- the queerness of the fairy in the modern mind will be looked at from a variety of angles.
Each week the instructor will provide primary and secondary source documents for students as well as links to a wide variety of sources in many media. Discussion, questioning and sharing will be encouraged.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian specializing in the history of technology, science and the occult. He has lectured often and taught a number of classes for Morbid Anatomy including A Cultural History of Robots, A History of Fairies and a two part course on the history of the Femme Fatale.
Seven Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, May 4 - June 15, 2025
2 pm - 4 pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
What is a fairy? A diminutive humanoid creature with insect wings, a shimmering gown, a magic wand, and the ability to bestow blessings, cast enchantments or fulfill wishes? This image is so wide-spread in modern cultures that, like unicorns, dragons and merfolk, the fairies have almost ceased to generate the kind of human responses that once upon a time included such emotions as primal terror, erotic ecstasy, trance-like euphoria, or total disorientation.
The fairy-folk of the past were not the small, friendly, or wish-fulfilling entities we know from our childhoods; they were often god-like, violent, shape-shifting and could command the fierce powers of the earth, the elements and the atmosphere. Unlucky humans could be ravished, maimed, killed, or carried away never to be seen again should they cross over into fairy territory, draw unnecessary attention to themselves, or show disrespect to these fantastical people. Fairy beings were connected to sacred sites, geographical anomalies, to dark magic and quite often to the dead. They could appear in any number of forms: shining lords and ladies parading on horseback, great dogs with luminous eyes, water-horses, seductive beauties, a green mist, dancing flames or even as someone’s deceased relatives.
In this class, we will be trace the history of the development of the current concept of the fairy following a variety of clues and submerged streams of cultural belief. Although the core focus in this class will be on the fairy as cultural phenomenon in Western European cultures, we will travel across the globe to meet a wide array of astounding fairy cousins from every clime. We will make note of their shared characteristics as well as the different solutions that humans have invented to deal with their sometimes troublesome, sometimes beneficial presence.
Over the course of six weeks of image rich lectures and in-class discussion, we will examine the relation of modern consciousness to this abundance of new fairy activity: occultism, the biological sciences, children’s literature, depth psychology, and the rise of mass media and cinema, all of which gave the fairy world renewed vitality, bringing them once again into human awareness, but also placing them in the closed perimeter of the human head, the skull-cave where modernity had confined the faculty of imagination. The fairy’s perceived nature as a marginal, dangerous, and even abject figure has often provided a name and metaphor for populations seen as liminal or labeled perverse- the queerness of the fairy in the modern mind will be looked at from a variety of angles.
Each week the instructor will provide primary and secondary source documents for students as well as links to a wide variety of sources in many media. Discussion, questioning and sharing will be encouraged.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian specializing in the history of technology, science and the occult. He has lectured often and taught a number of classes for Morbid Anatomy including A Cultural History of Robots, A History of Fairies and a two part course on the history of the Femme Fatale.
Seven Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, May 4 - June 15, 2025
2 pm - 4 pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
What is a fairy? A diminutive humanoid creature with insect wings, a shimmering gown, a magic wand, and the ability to bestow blessings, cast enchantments or fulfill wishes? This image is so wide-spread in modern cultures that, like unicorns, dragons and merfolk, the fairies have almost ceased to generate the kind of human responses that once upon a time included such emotions as primal terror, erotic ecstasy, trance-like euphoria, or total disorientation.
The fairy-folk of the past were not the small, friendly, or wish-fulfilling entities we know from our childhoods; they were often god-like, violent, shape-shifting and could command the fierce powers of the earth, the elements and the atmosphere. Unlucky humans could be ravished, maimed, killed, or carried away never to be seen again should they cross over into fairy territory, draw unnecessary attention to themselves, or show disrespect to these fantastical people. Fairy beings were connected to sacred sites, geographical anomalies, to dark magic and quite often to the dead. They could appear in any number of forms: shining lords and ladies parading on horseback, great dogs with luminous eyes, water-horses, seductive beauties, a green mist, dancing flames or even as someone’s deceased relatives.
In this class, we will be trace the history of the development of the current concept of the fairy following a variety of clues and submerged streams of cultural belief. Although the core focus in this class will be on the fairy as cultural phenomenon in Western European cultures, we will travel across the globe to meet a wide array of astounding fairy cousins from every clime. We will make note of their shared characteristics as well as the different solutions that humans have invented to deal with their sometimes troublesome, sometimes beneficial presence.
Over the course of six weeks of image rich lectures and in-class discussion, we will examine the relation of modern consciousness to this abundance of new fairy activity: occultism, the biological sciences, children’s literature, depth psychology, and the rise of mass media and cinema, all of which gave the fairy world renewed vitality, bringing them once again into human awareness, but also placing them in the closed perimeter of the human head, the skull-cave where modernity had confined the faculty of imagination. The fairy’s perceived nature as a marginal, dangerous, and even abject figure has often provided a name and metaphor for populations seen as liminal or labeled perverse- the queerness of the fairy in the modern mind will be looked at from a variety of angles.
Each week the instructor will provide primary and secondary source documents for students as well as links to a wide variety of sources in many media. Discussion, questioning and sharing will be encouraged.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian specializing in the history of technology, science and the occult. He has lectured often and taught a number of classes for Morbid Anatomy including A Cultural History of Robots, A History of Fairies and a two part course on the history of the Femme Fatale.