Ariel Glucklich
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314052
- eISBN:
- 9780199871766
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314052.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The Strides of Vishnu explores a wide range of topics in Hindu culture and history. Hinduism has often set out to mediate between the practical needs of its many communities and a ...
More
The Strides of Vishnu explores a wide range of topics in Hindu culture and history. Hinduism has often set out to mediate between the practical needs of its many communities and a transcendent realm. Illuminating this connection, The Strides of Vishnu focuses not only on religious ideas but also on the various arts and sciences, as well as crafts, politics, technology, and medicine. The book emphasizes core themes that run through the major historical periods of Northern India, beginning with the Vedas and leading up to India's independence. Sophisticated sciences such as geometry, grammar, politics, law, architecture, and biology are discussed within a broad cultural framework. Special attention is devoted to historical, economic, and political developments, including urbanism and empire‐building. The Strides of Vishnu situates religious and philosophical ideas within such broad contexts so religion sheds its abstract and detached reputation. The message of classical and medieval religious masterpieces—including the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, plays of Kalidasa, and many others—comes to life within a broad world‐making agenda. But while the literary masterpieces reflected the work of the cultural elites, The Strides of Vishnu also devotes considerable attention to the work that did not make it into the great texts: women's rituals, magic, alchemy, medicine, and a variety of impressive crafts. The book discusses the stunning mythology of medieval India and provides the methods for interpreting it, along with the vast cosmologies and cosmographies of the Puranas. The Strides of Vishnu is an introductory book on Hindu culture, but while it highlights central religious themes, it explores these within broader historical and cultural contexts. It gives its readers a clear and highly textured overview of a vast and productive civilization.Less
The Strides of Vishnu explores a wide range of topics in Hindu culture and history. Hinduism has often set out to mediate between the practical needs of its many communities and a transcendent realm. Illuminating this connection, The Strides of Vishnu focuses not only on religious ideas but also on the various arts and sciences, as well as crafts, politics, technology, and medicine. The book emphasizes core themes that run through the major historical periods of Northern India, beginning with the Vedas and leading up to India's independence. Sophisticated sciences such as geometry, grammar, politics, law, architecture, and biology are discussed within a broad cultural framework. Special attention is devoted to historical, economic, and political developments, including urbanism and empire‐building. The Strides of Vishnu situates religious and philosophical ideas within such broad contexts so religion sheds its abstract and detached reputation. The message of classical and medieval religious masterpieces—including the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, plays of Kalidasa, and many others—comes to life within a broad world‐making agenda. But while the literary masterpieces reflected the work of the cultural elites, The Strides of Vishnu also devotes considerable attention to the work that did not make it into the great texts: women's rituals, magic, alchemy, medicine, and a variety of impressive crafts. The book discusses the stunning mythology of medieval India and provides the methods for interpreting it, along with the vast cosmologies and cosmographies of the Puranas. The Strides of Vishnu is an introductory book on Hindu culture, but while it highlights central religious themes, it explores these within broader historical and cultural contexts. It gives its readers a clear and highly textured overview of a vast and productive civilization.
A. Robert Lee (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824872946
- eISBN:
- 9780824877873
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824872946.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Karen Tei Yamashita’s novels, essays, and performance scripts have garnered considerable praise from scholars and reviewers, and are taught not only in the United States but in at least half a dozen ...
More
Karen Tei Yamashita’s novels, essays, and performance scripts have garnered considerable praise from scholars and reviewers, and are taught not only in the United States but in at least half a dozen countries in Asia, South America, Europe. Her work has been written about in numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Karen Tei Yamashita: Fictions of Magic and Memory is the first anthology given over to Yamashita’s writing. It contains newly commissioned essays by established, international scholars; a recent interview with the author; a semiautobiographical keynote address delivered at an international conference that ruminates on her Japanese American heritage; and a full bibliography. The essays offer fresh and in-depth readings of the magic realist canvas of Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990); the Japanese emigrant portraiture of Brazil-Maru (1992); Los Angeles as rambunctious geopolitical and transnational fulcrum of the Americas in Tropic of Orange (1997); the fraught relationship of Japanese and Brazilian heritage and labor in Circle K Cycles (2001); Asian American history and politics of the1960s in I Hotel (2010); and Anime Wong (2014), a gallery of performativity illustrating the contested and inextricable nature of East and West. This essay-collection explores Yamashita’s use of the fantastical, the play of emerging transnational ethnicity, and the narrative tactics of reflexivity and bricolage in storytelling located on a continuum of the unique and the communal, of the past and the present, and that are mapped in various spatial and virtual realities.Less
Karen Tei Yamashita’s novels, essays, and performance scripts have garnered considerable praise from scholars and reviewers, and are taught not only in the United States but in at least half a dozen countries in Asia, South America, Europe. Her work has been written about in numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Karen Tei Yamashita: Fictions of Magic and Memory is the first anthology given over to Yamashita’s writing. It contains newly commissioned essays by established, international scholars; a recent interview with the author; a semiautobiographical keynote address delivered at an international conference that ruminates on her Japanese American heritage; and a full bibliography. The essays offer fresh and in-depth readings of the magic realist canvas of Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990); the Japanese emigrant portraiture of Brazil-Maru (1992); Los Angeles as rambunctious geopolitical and transnational fulcrum of the Americas in Tropic of Orange (1997); the fraught relationship of Japanese and Brazilian heritage and labor in Circle K Cycles (2001); Asian American history and politics of the1960s in I Hotel (2010); and Anime Wong (2014), a gallery of performativity illustrating the contested and inextricable nature of East and West. This essay-collection explores Yamashita’s use of the fantastical, the play of emerging transnational ethnicity, and the narrative tactics of reflexivity and bricolage in storytelling located on a continuum of the unique and the communal, of the past and the present, and that are mapped in various spatial and virtual realities.
Willard Spiegelman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195368130
- eISBN:
- 9780199852192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368130.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter criticizes Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden's translation of the opera The Rake's Progress, Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni. It suggests that Auden's translation of the opera has given the ...
More
This chapter criticizes Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden's translation of the opera The Rake's Progress, Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni. It suggests that Auden's translation of the opera has given the lie to his earlier pronouncements that the verses which the librettist writes are not addressed to the public but are really a private letter to the composer and that in opera the orchestra is addressed to the singers not to the audience. It contends that The Rake's Progress has overcome the label of being merely an exercise in imitation because its music, especially music wedded to words, offered a chance for something different.Less
This chapter criticizes Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden's translation of the opera The Rake's Progress, Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni. It suggests that Auden's translation of the opera has given the lie to his earlier pronouncements that the verses which the librettist writes are not addressed to the public but are really a private letter to the composer and that in opera the orchestra is addressed to the singers not to the audience. It contends that The Rake's Progress has overcome the label of being merely an exercise in imitation because its music, especially music wedded to words, offered a chance for something different.
Peter J. Conradi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199289905
- eISBN:
- 9780191728471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289905.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Iris Murdoch habitually explored courts, covens or cabals within her fiction. Her first two novels, Under the Net and The Flight from the Enchanter, considered by critics to belong to different ...
More
Iris Murdoch habitually explored courts, covens or cabals within her fiction. Her first two novels, Under the Net and The Flight from the Enchanter, considered by critics to belong to different fictional sub-genres, are shown none the less each to concern the need of their respective heroes to out-grow the magicians who exercise power over them. In Under the Net the magician is the French novelist Breteuil, loosely based on Raymond Queneau, and in The Flight from the Enchanter the magician is much more closely a portrait from the life of the writer Elias Canetti. The role of the good magician and Holy Fool Hugo Belfounder in Under the Net is shown distantly to mirror the role of Wittgenstein’s disciple Yoryck Smythies in the life of Dame Iris herself: Smythies and Canetti played respectively the roles of good and evil daemons or philosopher-kings.Less
Iris Murdoch habitually explored courts, covens or cabals within her fiction. Her first two novels, Under the Net and The Flight from the Enchanter, considered by critics to belong to different fictional sub-genres, are shown none the less each to concern the need of their respective heroes to out-grow the magicians who exercise power over them. In Under the Net the magician is the French novelist Breteuil, loosely based on Raymond Queneau, and in The Flight from the Enchanter the magician is much more closely a portrait from the life of the writer Elias Canetti. The role of the good magician and Holy Fool Hugo Belfounder in Under the Net is shown distantly to mirror the role of Wittgenstein’s disciple Yoryck Smythies in the life of Dame Iris herself: Smythies and Canetti played respectively the roles of good and evil daemons or philosopher-kings.
ALAN MACFARLANE
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207108
- eISBN:
- 9780191677496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207108.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter examines the impact of the cosmological shift in early modern Europe on civility. This shift from a magical and religion-dominated ...
More
This chapter examines the impact of the cosmological shift in early modern Europe on civility. This shift from a magical and religion-dominated cosmology to a mechanistic and secular one occurred roughly between 1550 and 1850. The most ambitious attempt to explain this shift is given in the two major works by Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic and Man and the Natural World. These books explain that reasons behind the decline in magical beliefs and the emergence of science.Less
This chapter examines the impact of the cosmological shift in early modern Europe on civility. This shift from a magical and religion-dominated cosmology to a mechanistic and secular one occurred roughly between 1550 and 1850. The most ambitious attempt to explain this shift is given in the two major works by Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic and Man and the Natural World. These books explain that reasons behind the decline in magical beliefs and the emergence of science.
Jeremy Stolow (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249800
- eISBN:
- 9780823252480
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249800.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Drawing upon a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples, this book approaches the study of religion and technology from an interdisciplinary perspective, synthesizing recent work in the ...
More
Drawing upon a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples, this book approaches the study of religion and technology from an interdisciplinary perspective, synthesizing recent work in the anthropology and history of religion, media studies, and science and technology studies. The book comprises eleven original case studies plus an introduction that critically assesses the existing literature on religion and technology, and suggests future paths of scholarly inquiry. Discussions range across different religious traditions (including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Spiritualism, Buddhism, and Vodou) in different regions of the world (including Western Europe, United States, Ghana, Brazil, and Japan), and with regard to an array of technologies and technological procedures (including clocks and other timekeeping devices, magically empowered cables, belts, and talismans, kidney dialysis machines, and Internet-mediated commercial transactions). The fundamental operating premise of the book is that religion and technology do not refer to two mutually exclusive realms of knowledge, practice, and experience, but rather to a continuum of relationships between and among diverse material and immaterial entities, forces, and actors. Each chapter offers a concrete case study, attending to the things that lie “in between” religion and technology as they are commonly divided, and on that basis provides new analytical insight into the very construction of these categories in scholarly as well as non-academic discourses.Less
Drawing upon a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples, this book approaches the study of religion and technology from an interdisciplinary perspective, synthesizing recent work in the anthropology and history of religion, media studies, and science and technology studies. The book comprises eleven original case studies plus an introduction that critically assesses the existing literature on religion and technology, and suggests future paths of scholarly inquiry. Discussions range across different religious traditions (including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Spiritualism, Buddhism, and Vodou) in different regions of the world (including Western Europe, United States, Ghana, Brazil, and Japan), and with regard to an array of technologies and technological procedures (including clocks and other timekeeping devices, magically empowered cables, belts, and talismans, kidney dialysis machines, and Internet-mediated commercial transactions). The fundamental operating premise of the book is that religion and technology do not refer to two mutually exclusive realms of knowledge, practice, and experience, but rather to a continuum of relationships between and among diverse material and immaterial entities, forces, and actors. Each chapter offers a concrete case study, attending to the things that lie “in between” religion and technology as they are commonly divided, and on that basis provides new analytical insight into the very construction of these categories in scholarly as well as non-academic discourses.
Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637980
- eISBN:
- 9780748670758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637980.003.0021
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
There are several ways in which the Greek gods are transformed in late-antiquity in the handbooks and charms of itinerant magicians. One method involves expropriating and shrinking a god’s public ...
More
There are several ways in which the Greek gods are transformed in late-antiquity in the handbooks and charms of itinerant magicians. One method involves expropriating and shrinking a god’s public cult (e.g. Apollo at Delphi) to the size of household shrine for personal rather than public use. Christian magical spells take another tactic: they demonize gods (e.g. Aphrodite or Artemis) so that they aligned solely with evil. A third process is simple persistence: chthonic gods like Persephone and Hekate, whom the Greeks in the classical period invoke in curses, persist throughout late antiquity in this same role. This chapter examines Kronos and Titans as a special and difficult case: although they were originally powerful free-ranging gods, because they take up an ultimate and permanent position in Tartarus, they are assimilated to other underworld entities and eventually become agents of oaths, curses and necromancy – roles that they borrow from ghosts and other chthonic demons.Less
There are several ways in which the Greek gods are transformed in late-antiquity in the handbooks and charms of itinerant magicians. One method involves expropriating and shrinking a god’s public cult (e.g. Apollo at Delphi) to the size of household shrine for personal rather than public use. Christian magical spells take another tactic: they demonize gods (e.g. Aphrodite or Artemis) so that they aligned solely with evil. A third process is simple persistence: chthonic gods like Persephone and Hekate, whom the Greeks in the classical period invoke in curses, persist throughout late antiquity in this same role. This chapter examines Kronos and Titans as a special and difficult case: although they were originally powerful free-ranging gods, because they take up an ultimate and permanent position in Tartarus, they are assimilated to other underworld entities and eventually become agents of oaths, curses and necromancy – roles that they borrow from ghosts and other chthonic demons.
Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637980
- eISBN:
- 9780748670758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637980.003.0022
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This chapter starts by examining the fact that for most of Greek history, gods’ visits to humans were hard to discern--one never could be sure when or if a god were present, even within divinatory ...
More
This chapter starts by examining the fact that for most of Greek history, gods’ visits to humans were hard to discern--one never could be sure when or if a god were present, even within divinatory settings, when one would most expect that to be the case. It then moves on to contrast this with the situation found in later antiquity, particularly as expressed by divinatory rituals described by magical and theurgic texts. In these cases, the practitioner not only knew exactly what the visiting god or angel or daemon would look and sound like, but often was able to request that it manifest itself in a specific form. The paper explores these points by focusing particularly on four different types of divinatory experiences described by these texts: direct encounters (sustaseis, autopsiai), photagogia (leading in of divine light), lecanomancy and lychnomancy (divining by flames and water) and dreams.Less
This chapter starts by examining the fact that for most of Greek history, gods’ visits to humans were hard to discern--one never could be sure when or if a god were present, even within divinatory settings, when one would most expect that to be the case. It then moves on to contrast this with the situation found in later antiquity, particularly as expressed by divinatory rituals described by magical and theurgic texts. In these cases, the practitioner not only knew exactly what the visiting god or angel or daemon would look and sound like, but often was able to request that it manifest itself in a specific form. The paper explores these points by focusing particularly on four different types of divinatory experiences described by these texts: direct encounters (sustaseis, autopsiai), photagogia (leading in of divine light), lecanomancy and lychnomancy (divining by flames and water) and dreams.
Dawn AdÈs
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264775
- eISBN:
- 9780191734984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264775.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on the legacies of surrealism in Latin America given at the 2009 British Academy Lecture Series. This text discusses the tensions between surrealist ...
More
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on the legacies of surrealism in Latin America given at the 2009 British Academy Lecture Series. This text discusses the tensions between surrealist internationalism and local cultural nationalisms, the contested relationship between surrealism and Magic Realism, and the enduring surrealist fascination with Pre-Columbian art and architecture. It analyzes the works of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Gunther Gerzso and works of contemporary Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles. It contents that art from Latin America has flourished in recent years without claiming surrealism as an exclusive source.Less
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on the legacies of surrealism in Latin America given at the 2009 British Academy Lecture Series. This text discusses the tensions between surrealist internationalism and local cultural nationalisms, the contested relationship between surrealism and Magic Realism, and the enduring surrealist fascination with Pre-Columbian art and architecture. It analyzes the works of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Gunther Gerzso and works of contemporary Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles. It contents that art from Latin America has flourished in recent years without claiming surrealism as an exclusive source.
Adam Bingham
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780748683734
- eISBN:
- 9781474412162
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748683734.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book examines generic developments in contemporary Japanese cinema since 1997. Through close analysis of numerous texts it considers and contextualises new films in the most prevalent genres in ...
More
This book examines generic developments in contemporary Japanese cinema since 1997. Through close analysis of numerous texts it considers and contextualises new films in the most prevalent genres in the country’s popular canon, placing them within historical, generic and authorial contexts and elucidating their formal, thematic and stylistic strategies and significance. It provides informed readings and analyses of a selection of important films by the country’s preeminent directors and further situates Japanese cinema within both western and Japanese discourse to consider how it has been variously conceptualised and canonized. Contemporary Japanese films are thus throughout placed within the lineage and tradition of earlier generations, and it is the ways in which the former either adheres and conforms to or subverts and transgresses these models that is the focus of this study. Patterns of repetition and variation are traced, alongside which the specific tenets of what, today, constitutes a national cinema are probed and questioned.Less
This book examines generic developments in contemporary Japanese cinema since 1997. Through close analysis of numerous texts it considers and contextualises new films in the most prevalent genres in the country’s popular canon, placing them within historical, generic and authorial contexts and elucidating their formal, thematic and stylistic strategies and significance. It provides informed readings and analyses of a selection of important films by the country’s preeminent directors and further situates Japanese cinema within both western and Japanese discourse to consider how it has been variously conceptualised and canonized. Contemporary Japanese films are thus throughout placed within the lineage and tradition of earlier generations, and it is the ways in which the former either adheres and conforms to or subverts and transgresses these models that is the focus of this study. Patterns of repetition and variation are traced, alongside which the specific tenets of what, today, constitutes a national cinema are probed and questioned.
HARVEY F. BELLIN and DOROTHY G. SINGER
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195304381
- eISBN:
- 9780199894321
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304381.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Clinical Child Psychology / School Psychology
This chapter focuses on My Magic Story Car, a video-based program that strengthens emergent literacy skills of at-risk preschool children from low-income families through one of the most effective ...
More
This chapter focuses on My Magic Story Car, a video-based program that strengthens emergent literacy skills of at-risk preschool children from low-income families through one of the most effective available modalities — make-believe play. Research shows that make-believe play, a natural feature of early childhood development peaking at ages 3 to 5, is an intrinsically motivating modality for engaging preschoolers in activities to enhance a plethora of cognitive, socioemotional, and motor skills. Through play, children practice vocabulary and new ways to express themselves. They verbalize plot sequences with increasingly complex situations that often evoke correcting responses from adults or peers. The narrative sequences of imaginative play can also enhance socioemotional skills such as cause-and-effect thinking, empathy, cooperation, patience, civility, and self-regulation. Singer and Singer (2001) developed a comprehensive set of learning games to strengthen these skills among 3- to 5-year-olds. Several of these games were adapted into My Magic Story Car.Less
This chapter focuses on My Magic Story Car, a video-based program that strengthens emergent literacy skills of at-risk preschool children from low-income families through one of the most effective available modalities — make-believe play. Research shows that make-believe play, a natural feature of early childhood development peaking at ages 3 to 5, is an intrinsically motivating modality for engaging preschoolers in activities to enhance a plethora of cognitive, socioemotional, and motor skills. Through play, children practice vocabulary and new ways to express themselves. They verbalize plot sequences with increasingly complex situations that often evoke correcting responses from adults or peers. The narrative sequences of imaginative play can also enhance socioemotional skills such as cause-and-effect thinking, empathy, cooperation, patience, civility, and self-regulation. Singer and Singer (2001) developed a comprehensive set of learning games to strengthen these skills among 3- to 5-year-olds. Several of these games were adapted into My Magic Story Car.
Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199604128
- eISBN:
- 9780191729362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604128.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The exoticization of places is no more evident than in the case of European locales symbolically rendered mysterious, desirous, and threatening, as occurs in the case of Venice and the Swiss Alps, ...
More
The exoticization of places is no more evident than in the case of European locales symbolically rendered mysterious, desirous, and threatening, as occurs in the case of Venice and the Swiss Alps, respectively, in Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig and Der Zauberberg. What these central Mann texts share in common with Zweig’s novella Der Amokläufer is the coupling of the exotic topography with both erotic desire and infection illness. This chapter shows thematically how the infectious-erotic topography, in which protagonists experience a moral downfall or loss of rationality, situates a critique of the self-certain and usually dominant European subject in the face of the foreign other. This chapter further outlines in theoretical terms the ways in which usually familiar or ordinary places can be symbolically exoticized by their association with eros and infection.Less
The exoticization of places is no more evident than in the case of European locales symbolically rendered mysterious, desirous, and threatening, as occurs in the case of Venice and the Swiss Alps, respectively, in Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig and Der Zauberberg. What these central Mann texts share in common with Zweig’s novella Der Amokläufer is the coupling of the exotic topography with both erotic desire and infection illness. This chapter shows thematically how the infectious-erotic topography, in which protagonists experience a moral downfall or loss of rationality, situates a critique of the self-certain and usually dominant European subject in the face of the foreign other. This chapter further outlines in theoretical terms the ways in which usually familiar or ordinary places can be symbolically exoticized by their association with eros and infection.
Tom Shippey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382615
- eISBN:
- 9781786945167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382615.003.0017
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
A further sub-genre of science fiction is “worlds where magic works”. This chapter demonstrates the root of the idea in Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough (first edition 1890), which argued that ...
More
A further sub-genre of science fiction is “worlds where magic works”. This chapter demonstrates the root of the idea in Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough (first edition 1890), which argued that magic was a concept parallel to science rather than opposed to it, and offered tentative laws of magic to support the theory. The parallel was eagerly seized on by many authors, who developed Frazer’s laws, and their application, in a manner increasingly Newtonian, creating more and more detailed, logical and complex scenarios. The sub-genre exemplifies once more the penetration of science fiction by cultural anthropology. A further intellectual movement picked out by some authors was the development of theories of the occult, again stemming for the most part from Frazer and his contemporaries.Less
A further sub-genre of science fiction is “worlds where magic works”. This chapter demonstrates the root of the idea in Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough (first edition 1890), which argued that magic was a concept parallel to science rather than opposed to it, and offered tentative laws of magic to support the theory. The parallel was eagerly seized on by many authors, who developed Frazer’s laws, and their application, in a manner increasingly Newtonian, creating more and more detailed, logical and complex scenarios. The sub-genre exemplifies once more the penetration of science fiction by cultural anthropology. A further intellectual movement picked out by some authors was the development of theories of the occult, again stemming for the most part from Frazer and his contemporaries.
Tom Shippey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382615
- eISBN:
- 9781786945167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382615.003.0019
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The relationship of science fiction to anthropological theory is further exemplified, in this chapter, by the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, herself the daughter of two famous anthropologists, Alfred and ...
More
The relationship of science fiction to anthropological theory is further exemplified, in this chapter, by the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, herself the daughter of two famous anthropologists, Alfred and Theodora Kroeber. The first three volumes of Le Guin’s “Earthsea” trilogy once again place magic within the framework of her parents’ discipline. Her work moreover considers the relationship of magic to ancient myth, and also (as in Frazer’s Golden Bough) to religious belief and ritual, all of these considered with a mixture of criticism and sympathy. Le Guin manages the difficult feat of being at once iconoclastic and mythopoeic.Less
The relationship of science fiction to anthropological theory is further exemplified, in this chapter, by the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, herself the daughter of two famous anthropologists, Alfred and Theodora Kroeber. The first three volumes of Le Guin’s “Earthsea” trilogy once again place magic within the framework of her parents’ discipline. Her work moreover considers the relationship of magic to ancient myth, and also (as in Frazer’s Golden Bough) to religious belief and ritual, all of these considered with a mixture of criticism and sympathy. Le Guin manages the difficult feat of being at once iconoclastic and mythopoeic.
Wendy Doniger (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199842926
- eISBN:
- 9780190258320
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199842926.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Mirigāvatī or The Magic Doe is the work of Shaikh Qutban Suhravardi, an Indian Sufi master who was also an expert poet and storyteller attached to the glittering court-in-exile of Sultan Husain Shah ...
More
Mirigāvatī or The Magic Doe is the work of Shaikh Qutban Suhravardi, an Indian Sufi master who was also an expert poet and storyteller attached to the glittering court-in-exile of Sultan Husain Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur. Composed in 1503 as an introduction to mystical practice for disciples, this powerful Hindavi or early Hindi Sufi romance is a richly layered and sophisticated text, simultaneously a spiritual enigma and an exciting love story full of adventures. The Mirigāvatī is both an excellent introduction to Sufism and one of the true literary classics of pre-modern India, a story that draws freely on the large pool of Indian, Islamic, and European narrative motifs in its distinctive telling of a mystical quest and its resolution. Adventures from the Odyssey and the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor—sea voyages, encounters with monstrous serpents, damsels in distress, flying demons and cannibals in caves, among others—surface in Suhravardi's rollicking tale, marking it as first-rate entertainment for its time and, in private sessions in Sufi shrines, a narrative that shaped the interior journey for novices.Less
Mirigāvatī or The Magic Doe is the work of Shaikh Qutban Suhravardi, an Indian Sufi master who was also an expert poet and storyteller attached to the glittering court-in-exile of Sultan Husain Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur. Composed in 1503 as an introduction to mystical practice for disciples, this powerful Hindavi or early Hindi Sufi romance is a richly layered and sophisticated text, simultaneously a spiritual enigma and an exciting love story full of adventures. The Mirigāvatī is both an excellent introduction to Sufism and one of the true literary classics of pre-modern India, a story that draws freely on the large pool of Indian, Islamic, and European narrative motifs in its distinctive telling of a mystical quest and its resolution. Adventures from the Odyssey and the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor—sea voyages, encounters with monstrous serpents, damsels in distress, flying demons and cannibals in caves, among others—surface in Suhravardi's rollicking tale, marking it as first-rate entertainment for its time and, in private sessions in Sufi shrines, a narrative that shaped the interior journey for novices.
WReC (Warwick Research Collective)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381892
- eISBN:
- 9781781382264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381892.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter offers a reading of the work of Ivan Vladislavic by way of demonstrating that its specific formal features capture the aura of a particular historical speace (Johannesburg) and time (the ...
More
This chapter offers a reading of the work of Ivan Vladislavic by way of demonstrating that its specific formal features capture the aura of a particular historical speace (Johannesburg) and time (the era of late or millennial capitalism) that nevertheless allows one to witness and reflect upon a general and global structure of feeling formed over the long duration of modernity’s unfolding. Read alongside incidents of occultism, witchcraft and trade in human organs in contemporary South Africa, Vladislavic's ‘anti-’ or ‘magic-’ realism points to the historical compulsion under which cultural modes operate in conditions of uneven development – the compulsion to fuse disparate idioms, languages, genres, and forms in order to meditate upon ordinary lives caught up in the dark magic of history. Vladislavic's thematic and formal concerns are interpreted as expressions of historical-material contraditions and paradoxes.Less
This chapter offers a reading of the work of Ivan Vladislavic by way of demonstrating that its specific formal features capture the aura of a particular historical speace (Johannesburg) and time (the era of late or millennial capitalism) that nevertheless allows one to witness and reflect upon a general and global structure of feeling formed over the long duration of modernity’s unfolding. Read alongside incidents of occultism, witchcraft and trade in human organs in contemporary South Africa, Vladislavic's ‘anti-’ or ‘magic-’ realism points to the historical compulsion under which cultural modes operate in conditions of uneven development – the compulsion to fuse disparate idioms, languages, genres, and forms in order to meditate upon ordinary lives caught up in the dark magic of history. Vladislavic's thematic and formal concerns are interpreted as expressions of historical-material contraditions and paradoxes.
Marcia J. Citron (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252043000
- eISBN:
- 9780252051869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043000.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late ...
More
Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late opera. Except for chapters by Jeongwon Joe (1998) and Jeremy Tambling (1987), it has been underrepresented in research on opera-film. There is much more to be said, especially with respect to sound. Not only are Flute’s sound practices critical to the film, but its emphasis on vococentrism is unusual for an opera-film and also connects Flute to Bergman’s cinema as a whole. Many elements in the soundscape contribute to Bergman’s highly personal interpretation. One is the dry environment in the passages of spoken dialogue, recorded live and its contrast with the warmer environment in the musical numbers, which were prerecorded. The spoken sections impart a sense of intimacy and interiority, qualities found in other Bergman films, such as Persona, The Seventh Seal, and The Hour of the Wolf. Ambient noise occurs in some places, its use linked to certain moods and situations. Variations in the resonance of the vocal music add another element to the mix. This chapter focuses on three places in Flute. The second tableau, numbers 1-5, uses sound to delineate the juxtaposition of theater and cinema and establish a link between dry speech and interioirity. In the scene of Tamino’s crisis at “O ew’ge Nacht,” an expanded array of effects, including the acousmêtre and reverberation in addition to dryness, limn Tamino’s psyche and underscore a key moment of the opera. And at Pamina’s parental crisis in the first half of Act II, silence as well as sound plays an integral role. The striking sound design of Bergman and his team is crucial to the film’s aesthetic style, in which “less is more,” and its reputation as a landmark of opera-film.Less
Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late opera. Except for chapters by Jeongwon Joe (1998) and Jeremy Tambling (1987), it has been underrepresented in research on opera-film. There is much more to be said, especially with respect to sound. Not only are Flute’s sound practices critical to the film, but its emphasis on vococentrism is unusual for an opera-film and also connects Flute to Bergman’s cinema as a whole. Many elements in the soundscape contribute to Bergman’s highly personal interpretation. One is the dry environment in the passages of spoken dialogue, recorded live and its contrast with the warmer environment in the musical numbers, which were prerecorded. The spoken sections impart a sense of intimacy and interiority, qualities found in other Bergman films, such as Persona, The Seventh Seal, and The Hour of the Wolf. Ambient noise occurs in some places, its use linked to certain moods and situations. Variations in the resonance of the vocal music add another element to the mix. This chapter focuses on three places in Flute. The second tableau, numbers 1-5, uses sound to delineate the juxtaposition of theater and cinema and establish a link between dry speech and interioirity. In the scene of Tamino’s crisis at “O ew’ge Nacht,” an expanded array of effects, including the acousmêtre and reverberation in addition to dryness, limn Tamino’s psyche and underscore a key moment of the opera. And at Pamina’s parental crisis in the first half of Act II, silence as well as sound plays an integral role. The striking sound design of Bergman and his team is crucial to the film’s aesthetic style, in which “less is more,” and its reputation as a landmark of opera-film.
Julia Round
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824455
- eISBN:
- 9781496824509
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824455.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter develops the previous discussion by examining Misty’suse of Gothic themes in its stories. It discusses the typical themes of the Misty tales, using qualitative and quantitative research ...
More
This chapter develops the previous discussion by examining Misty’suse of Gothic themes in its stories. It discusses the typical themes of the Misty tales, using qualitative and quantitative research into the entire corpus of 443 stories. This chapter reflects on various claims about Misty’s content, and applies Pat Mills’ girls’ comics formulae (slave, Cinderella, friend, mystery) to its stories. It then suggests an alternative approach developed from the author’s analysis of plot summaries to produce an inductive list of common plot tropes (such as external magical, internal power, backfiring actions, and more). It relates these tropes to established Gothic themes (ambivalence, redemption) and concludes that, although the fare of Misty was not as consistently negative as readers might remember, it was perhaps more shocking due to inconsistency with moral ‘rules’.Less
This chapter develops the previous discussion by examining Misty’suse of Gothic themes in its stories. It discusses the typical themes of the Misty tales, using qualitative and quantitative research into the entire corpus of 443 stories. This chapter reflects on various claims about Misty’s content, and applies Pat Mills’ girls’ comics formulae (slave, Cinderella, friend, mystery) to its stories. It then suggests an alternative approach developed from the author’s analysis of plot summaries to produce an inductive list of common plot tropes (such as external magical, internal power, backfiring actions, and more). It relates these tropes to established Gothic themes (ambivalence, redemption) and concludes that, although the fare of Misty was not as consistently negative as readers might remember, it was perhaps more shocking due to inconsistency with moral ‘rules’.
Julia Round
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824455
- eISBN:
- 9781496824509
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824455.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter uses the previous analyses to construct the conventions of the ‘Gothic for Girls’ subgenre and reflect on its development and position within children’s literature. It surveys existing ...
More
This chapter uses the previous analyses to construct the conventions of the ‘Gothic for Girls’ subgenre and reflect on its development and position within children’s literature. It surveys existing work on childhood and Gothic, with a particular focus on the fairy tale and the cautionary tale as subgenres of children’s literature. It argues that Misty combines Female Gothic tropes with fairy tale markers to create stories that bring together adult and child concerns. The chapter concludes by relating Misty to some contemporary dark fairy tales and offering a working definition of Gothic for Girls. Elements include an isolated or trapped female protagonist in an abstracted world that juxtaposes the mundane and supernatural, a narrative awakening to magical potential that is often driven by fear and particularly terror, the use of feminine symbols and fairy tale sins as catalysts, and the weight placed on personal responsibility and self-control or self-acceptance.Less
This chapter uses the previous analyses to construct the conventions of the ‘Gothic for Girls’ subgenre and reflect on its development and position within children’s literature. It surveys existing work on childhood and Gothic, with a particular focus on the fairy tale and the cautionary tale as subgenres of children’s literature. It argues that Misty combines Female Gothic tropes with fairy tale markers to create stories that bring together adult and child concerns. The chapter concludes by relating Misty to some contemporary dark fairy tales and offering a working definition of Gothic for Girls. Elements include an isolated or trapped female protagonist in an abstracted world that juxtaposes the mundane and supernatural, a narrative awakening to magical potential that is often driven by fear and particularly terror, the use of feminine symbols and fairy tale sins as catalysts, and the weight placed on personal responsibility and self-control or self-acceptance.
Barbara Glowczewski
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474450300
- eISBN:
- 9781474476911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474450300.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter is based on the transcript of a one hour filmed conversation with an Indigenous healer, a Yalarrnga ritual leader who grew up in the desert community of Boulia and studied archaeology ...
More
This chapter is based on the transcript of a one hour filmed conversation with an Indigenous healer, a Yalarrnga ritual leader who grew up in the desert community of Boulia and studied archaeology and anthropology at James Cook University: Lance Sullivan was invited to France in 2017 by the festival of Shamanism and Ancient Traditions that gathered 200 healers from around the world. He then agreed to share publicly his knowledge and experience to explain how he was initiated as a child to heal according to the ngangkari ‘cleverman’ tradition practiced by different desert tribes. His examples of the way he operates to pull out the source of pain from men and women, who suffer physically or spiritually, demonstrate that people’s health is connected with the care of the land. He also comments on different forms of magic love and sorcery.Less
This chapter is based on the transcript of a one hour filmed conversation with an Indigenous healer, a Yalarrnga ritual leader who grew up in the desert community of Boulia and studied archaeology and anthropology at James Cook University: Lance Sullivan was invited to France in 2017 by the festival of Shamanism and Ancient Traditions that gathered 200 healers from around the world. He then agreed to share publicly his knowledge and experience to explain how he was initiated as a child to heal according to the ngangkari ‘cleverman’ tradition practiced by different desert tribes. His examples of the way he operates to pull out the source of pain from men and women, who suffer physically or spiritually, demonstrate that people’s health is connected with the care of the land. He also comments on different forms of magic love and sorcery.
