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@article{193856,
        author = {ROHINI R and Dr. T. GANGAPARAMESWARI},
        title = {Recontextualizing Western Esotericism: An Intertextual Reading of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {10},
        pages = {8227-8230},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=193856},
        abstract = {This paper interrogates the reconfiguration of Western esotericism in Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (2009) through an intertextual framework that foregrounds both appropriation and transformation. Rather than treating Brown’s novel as merely popular fiction, this study positions it as a cultural text that actively mediates esoteric traditions Freemasonry, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Noetic science within a contemporary epistemological landscape shaped by mass media and global readership. The argument advanced here is that The Lost Symbol does not passively reproduce esoteric knowledge but rearticulates it through a narrative economy that blends symbolic hermeneutics with pseudo-scientific discourse. By tracing the novel’s intertextual engagement with sacred texts, Enlightenment rationality, and occult philosophies, the paper demonstrates how Brown simultaneously democratizes and commodifies esoteric knowledge. This dual movement generates a paradox wherein secrecy is theatrically preserved even as it is ostensibly unveiled. Ultimately, the paper contends that Brown’s text exemplifies how esotericism is not diminished but reconfigured within popular culture, acquiring new meanings within a globalized, consumption-driven cultural economy.},
        keywords = {Western Esotericism, Intertextuality, Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol, Freemasonry, Hermeticism, Popular Fiction},
        month = {March},
        }