Sympathy for the Occult

Abstract This article analyses Ernst Bloch’s (1885–1977) discourse on occultism in the interwar period and its reception among Marxist intellectuals. In particular, it draws attention to Bloch’s sustained treatment of “occultism” in Heritage of Our Times (1935), and illustrates how Bloch did not merely equate but rather negotiate various links between occultism, irrationalism, and fascism in a complicated manner. As such, the article seeks to contribute to the growing body of work that unsettles established scholarly perceptions around Marxism/critical theory’s relationship with esotericism. The article shows how Bloch’s treatment of the “occult” is more ambivalent than has previously been assumed, and further argues that Bloch’s understanding of occultism is inextricable from the greater effort at forging a Marxist theory of culture in the era of antifascism in the 1930s.