May 16, 2025
Linda Blaser
Carla Arnell publishes new paper based on student literary research
Professor of English Carla Arnell’s new article “George MacDonald, A.E. Waite, and the Golden Stair from Victorian Fantasy to Edwardian Mystical Fiction” is being published this month in the journal Renascence.
Arnell described the scholarly paper as “the fruit of research” she conducted with former Fielding Fellow, Richter Scholar, and English and philosophy major Jack Farrell ’24, as well as graduating English majors Elena Vaux ’25 and Cara Goldstone ’25.
“Jack and I began work on this article together when he was a Fielding Fellow—our intra-departmental faculty-student mentorship program—and we worked together on Waite’s fiction and scholarship for several semesters,” Arnell said. “Jack’s energy and passion for learning about A.E. Waite’s scholarship on the Kabbalah and other occult studies really helped to launch and sustain this scholarly project, but I could not have completed it without the superb contributions that Cara and Elena made to my research as I finetuned loose ends last summer.”
Goldstone’s research included reaching out to Yale University archives for copies of original MacDonald letters, while Vaux worked very closely with Arnell to prepare the article for publication.
About the paper
In the article “George MacDonald, A.E. Waite, and the Golden Stair from Victorian Fantasy to Edwardian Mystical Fiction,” Arnell explores how the scholar, poet, novelist, and mystic A.E. Waite, known most well for the Rider-Waite tarot deck, fostered a literary movement that sought to rectify earlier definitions of mysticism and distinguish mysticism from the occult arts by rooting his understanding of mysticism in Christian sacramental theology. Arnell argues that Waite’s writing and scholarship had profound consequences for the spiritual lives of many Edwardian readers, for subsequent decades of spiritual writers, and even for the course of spirituality and religion in our own day and time.
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Research experience is invaluable no matter what field you go into, but as an English major pursuing a career in writing and editing it’s especially important. I built up crucial skills not only in my textual analysis, but also in communications and database searching. The fact that I was able to help with Dr. Arnell’s research is itself a gift, let alone the publication aspect. I gained a lot of confidence in myself as a researcher, student, and person from this experience.
Cara Goldstone ’25 | Working as a writer in Highland Park, Illinois
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I was given the opportunity to suggest edits, review the bibliography and corresponding in-text citations for clarity, and delve into old periodicals to discover Waite’s views on fellow writers and mystics. The graduate program I applied to required me to demonstrate how well I could analyze literature. The research in the essay I provided was inspired by the research experience I gained working on this peer-reviewed scholarly article. As an aspiring editor, it was wonderful to be exposed to all the work that goes behind academic writing.
Elena Vaux ’25 | Starting an MA program through Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies in creative writing and publishing.
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My research involved reading from A.E. Waite’s vast oeuvre, combing through online databases—I am sure that I have at least skimmed every online anglophone article about him—writing analyses and summaries, and visiting libraries to find rare original manuscripts that I discussed with Professor Arnell. I learned so much more about various niche topics than I ever expected I could learn. I also grew tremendously in my own worldview through this project. I will be forever grateful to Professor Arnell and the College for providing such rigorous research opportunities to students.
Jack Farrell ’24 | Middle school humanities teacher at a not-for-profit, tuition free K-8 school in Chicago.
About Renascence
Renascence is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Marquette University's English Department, in cooperation with the Philosophy Documentation Center. The journal examines the interaction between literature, moral philosophy, and theology. Its subtitle is “Essays on Values in Literature.”