Alexander Etkind
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153599
- eISBN:
- 9781400845248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153599.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter examines the representation of Soviet terror in post-Soviet culture. It proposes a new concept, that of memory-dread, to analyze how Russians perceive the Soviet terror. It interprets ...
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This chapter examines the representation of Soviet terror in post-Soviet culture. It proposes a new concept, that of memory-dread, to analyze how Russians perceive the Soviet terror. It interprets the fearful visions of post-Soviet writers, fimmakers, and intellectuals as a territory of memory-dread, a space of the undead. Recognizing ghosts, spirits, vampires, dolls, and other man-made and man-imagined simulacra that carry the memory of the unburied Soviet dead, the chapter develops a theory of cultural memory as consisting of three elements that are intimately connected: monuments (hardware), texts (software), and specters (ghostware). It also discusses three stages in the Russian memory of the so-called “unjustified repressions”: denial, repression, and interpretation. Finally, it considers the carnivalesque dynamics of the post-catastrophic melancholia, along with Magical Historicism in the post-Soviet novel.Less
This chapter examines the representation of Soviet terror in post-Soviet culture. It proposes a new concept, that of memory-dread, to analyze how Russians perceive the Soviet terror. It interprets the fearful visions of post-Soviet writers, fimmakers, and intellectuals as a territory of memory-dread, a space of the undead. Recognizing ghosts, spirits, vampires, dolls, and other man-made and man-imagined simulacra that carry the memory of the unburied Soviet dead, the chapter develops a theory of cultural memory as consisting of three elements that are intimately connected: monuments (hardware), texts (software), and specters (ghostware). It also discusses three stages in the Russian memory of the so-called “unjustified repressions”: denial, repression, and interpretation. Finally, it considers the carnivalesque dynamics of the post-catastrophic melancholia, along with Magical Historicism in the post-Soviet novel.
Hannah Boast
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474443807
- eISBN:
- 9781474491310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474443807.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter examines the changing meanings of swamp drainage in Israel’s national mythology. Swamp drainage was undertaken in the early twentieth century by the Jewish National Fund and again after ...
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This chapter examines the changing meanings of swamp drainage in Israel’s national mythology. Swamp drainage was undertaken in the early twentieth century by the Jewish National Fund and again after the establishment of the State of Israel. Once seen as a triumph of Zionist ingenuity, draining swamps was redefined in the late twentieth century as an emblem of Zionism’s environmental hubris. This chapter assesses this history through Meir Shalev’s magical realist novel The Blue Mountain (1988), situating Shalev’s text in its contemporary contexts of environmentalism and post-Zionism.Less
This chapter examines the changing meanings of swamp drainage in Israel’s national mythology. Swamp drainage was undertaken in the early twentieth century by the Jewish National Fund and again after the establishment of the State of Israel. Once seen as a triumph of Zionist ingenuity, draining swamps was redefined in the late twentieth century as an emblem of Zionism’s environmental hubris. This chapter assesses this history through Meir Shalev’s magical realist novel The Blue Mountain (1988), situating Shalev’s text in its contemporary contexts of environmentalism and post-Zionism.
Yasmine Ramadan
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474427647
- eISBN:
- 9781474476775
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474427647.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter focuses on the representation of the urban space of Cairo. It examines Sonallah Ibrahim’s Tilka-l-raʾiha (TheSmell of it, 1966), Gamal al-Ghitani’s Waqaʾiʿ harat al-Zaʿfarani (The ...
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This chapter focuses on the representation of the urban space of Cairo. It examines Sonallah Ibrahim’s Tilka-l-raʾiha (TheSmell of it, 1966), Gamal al-Ghitani’s Waqaʾiʿ harat al-Zaʿfarani (The Zafarani Files, 1976), Ibrahim Aslan’s Malik al-hazin (The Heron, 1981), and Radwa Ashour’s, Faraj (BlueLorries, 2008) reading the novels in opposition to the realist narratives of earlier decades. The shift away from the realist depictions of the urban metropolis as the site of national struggle, or of the alley as the cross-section of Egyptian society, is accompanied by a new representational aesthetics. Through the presentation of the city as the space of incarceration, the reimagination of the alley as a fantastic space, and the turn towards the previously ignored neighborhood of Imbaba, these writers showcase new literary techniques; aspects of magical realism; elements of the fantastic; a turn to hyper-realism, in order to represent the transformation of the urban space of Cairo into one of surveillance and control.Less
This chapter focuses on the representation of the urban space of Cairo. It examines Sonallah Ibrahim’s Tilka-l-raʾiha (TheSmell of it, 1966), Gamal al-Ghitani’s Waqaʾiʿ harat al-Zaʿfarani (The Zafarani Files, 1976), Ibrahim Aslan’s Malik al-hazin (The Heron, 1981), and Radwa Ashour’s, Faraj (BlueLorries, 2008) reading the novels in opposition to the realist narratives of earlier decades. The shift away from the realist depictions of the urban metropolis as the site of national struggle, or of the alley as the cross-section of Egyptian society, is accompanied by a new representational aesthetics. Through the presentation of the city as the space of incarceration, the reimagination of the alley as a fantastic space, and the turn towards the previously ignored neighborhood of Imbaba, these writers showcase new literary techniques; aspects of magical realism; elements of the fantastic; a turn to hyper-realism, in order to represent the transformation of the urban space of Cairo into one of surveillance and control.
Uppinder Mehan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Uppinder Mehan, in “India and Indians in SF by Indians and Others,” examines the representation of India in recent science fiction in the works of contemporary writers outside India, such as Ian ...
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Uppinder Mehan, in “India and Indians in SF by Indians and Others,” examines the representation of India in recent science fiction in the works of contemporary writers outside India, such as Ian McDonald’s River of Gods (2004) and Cyberabad Days (2009). Mehan makes comparisons to the SF of Indian writers such as Anuradha Marwah’s Idol Love (1999), Manjula Padmanabhan’s Escape (2008), and Rimi Chatterjee’s Signal Red (2005) and how they effortlessly explore concerns in their science fiction that are beyond the received images of India and Indians and surface knowledge available to the casual observer. Mehan interrogates the distorted and truthful reflections of Indian culture in science fiction.Less
Uppinder Mehan, in “India and Indians in SF by Indians and Others,” examines the representation of India in recent science fiction in the works of contemporary writers outside India, such as Ian McDonald’s River of Gods (2004) and Cyberabad Days (2009). Mehan makes comparisons to the SF of Indian writers such as Anuradha Marwah’s Idol Love (1999), Manjula Padmanabhan’s Escape (2008), and Rimi Chatterjee’s Signal Red (2005) and how they effortlessly explore concerns in their science fiction that are beyond the received images of India and Indians and surface knowledge available to the casual observer. Mehan interrogates the distorted and truthful reflections of Indian culture in science fiction.
Stephen J. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300149456
- eISBN:
- 9780300206609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300149456.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The third chapter involves the first of three case studies of how ancient readers would have engaged with the stories of Jesus’ childhood vis-à-vis certain “sites of memory” in the Graeco-Roman ...
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The third chapter involves the first of three case studies of how ancient readers would have engaged with the stories of Jesus’ childhood vis-à-vis certain “sites of memory” in the Graeco-Roman world. The focus in this chapter is the story of Jesus’ act of turning clay birds into live ones as a demonstration of his miraculous power. Beyond simply the citation of biblical intertexts, the analysis examines a range of material objects, places, and practices that would have served as cultural touchstones for understanding Jesus’ interaction with birds. These include evidence for ancient children's use of clay birds as toys and live birds as pets, as well as the role that birds played in ancient cultic worship, magical practices, and augury. The final product of this interpretive approach is a textured reading of the young Jesus as both a typical, recognizable child and a divinely-endowed prodigy.Less
The third chapter involves the first of three case studies of how ancient readers would have engaged with the stories of Jesus’ childhood vis-à-vis certain “sites of memory” in the Graeco-Roman world. The focus in this chapter is the story of Jesus’ act of turning clay birds into live ones as a demonstration of his miraculous power. Beyond simply the citation of biblical intertexts, the analysis examines a range of material objects, places, and practices that would have served as cultural touchstones for understanding Jesus’ interaction with birds. These include evidence for ancient children's use of clay birds as toys and live birds as pets, as well as the role that birds played in ancient cultic worship, magical practices, and augury. The final product of this interpretive approach is a textured reading of the young Jesus as both a typical, recognizable child and a divinely-endowed prodigy.
Tony Jason Stafford and R. F. Dietrich
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813044989
- eISBN:
- 9780813046747
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813044989.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
In Misalliance, it would seem at first glance that Shaw has abandoned the use of both gardens and libraries, for the sole on-stage setting is “a big hall with tiled flooring” and a “glass pavilion ...
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In Misalliance, it would seem at first glance that Shaw has abandoned the use of both gardens and libraries, for the sole on-stage setting is “a big hall with tiled flooring” and a “glass pavilion [which] springs from a bridgelike arch in the wall of the house.” But that would be a mistake, for gardens and books are both present, but in a way unlike anything Shaw has attempted before: the garden, with which much interaction occurs by characters such as Hypatia and Percival as well as others, is outside and seen through the enormous glass pavilion, and books and libraries form a major portion of the conversations, especially discussions involving John Tarleton. Furthermore, gardens and books are united in their mutual function of enabling Shaw to move in a new direction in both the style of the play and in his use of settings.Less
In Misalliance, it would seem at first glance that Shaw has abandoned the use of both gardens and libraries, for the sole on-stage setting is “a big hall with tiled flooring” and a “glass pavilion [which] springs from a bridgelike arch in the wall of the house.” But that would be a mistake, for gardens and books are both present, but in a way unlike anything Shaw has attempted before: the garden, with which much interaction occurs by characters such as Hypatia and Percival as well as others, is outside and seen through the enormous glass pavilion, and books and libraries form a major portion of the conversations, especially discussions involving John Tarleton. Furthermore, gardens and books are united in their mutual function of enabling Shaw to move in a new direction in both the style of the play and in his use of settings.
Matthew Mutter
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300221732
- eISBN:
- 9780300227963
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300221732.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines Auden’s vision of the body and the broader material character of existence by elaborating his critique of “magical thinking,” which for Auden marks an attempt to subsume the ...
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This chapter examines Auden’s vision of the body and the broader material character of existence by elaborating his critique of “magical thinking,” which for Auden marks an attempt to subsume the material otherness of the world into human subjectivity. As a late modernist, Auden is writing against what he takes to be two distorted modernist responses to secular “disenchantment”: magic, which disavows the gap between subject and object, and pagan immanence, which identifies with and seeks to resacralize the very inhumanness of the world’s material energy. Auden, rather, accepts the secular disenchantment of the world, which for him uncovers a new possibility: an ethical relation to material life, including the life of one’s own body, as the nonhuman other. But he simultaneously preserves a Christian, nonreductive vision of the human world as a domain of responsibility, original action, and transcendent aspiration. He thus develops what I call a nonhierarchical “affirmative dualism,” a vision of two distinct orders given equal standing.Less
This chapter examines Auden’s vision of the body and the broader material character of existence by elaborating his critique of “magical thinking,” which for Auden marks an attempt to subsume the material otherness of the world into human subjectivity. As a late modernist, Auden is writing against what he takes to be two distorted modernist responses to secular “disenchantment”: magic, which disavows the gap between subject and object, and pagan immanence, which identifies with and seeks to resacralize the very inhumanness of the world’s material energy. Auden, rather, accepts the secular disenchantment of the world, which for him uncovers a new possibility: an ethical relation to material life, including the life of one’s own body, as the nonhuman other. But he simultaneously preserves a Christian, nonreductive vision of the human world as a domain of responsibility, original action, and transcendent aspiration. He thus develops what I call a nonhierarchical “affirmative dualism,” a vision of two distinct orders given equal standing.
Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780823277872
- eISBN:
- 9780823280490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823277872.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This essay shows how the idea of the South Atlantic as a space
of dictatorships and banana republics was contested on the ground by literary experimentation and transoceanic influence. Armillas- ...
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This essay shows how the idea of the South Atlantic as a space
of dictatorships and banana republics was contested on the ground by literary experimentation and transoceanic influence. Armillas- Tiseyra uses Sony Labou Tansi’s La vie et demie (Life and a Half 1979) as an example of a dictator novel, a genre that spans the Global South. Armillas-Tiseyra argues for the term “constellation” to be used in place of “magical realism” to classify the genre. “Constellation” here serves as a figure both for the relationship of
individual texts or textual features to each other (a loose configuration or grouping) and for a mode of comparison that proceeds by juxtaposition and collage rather than more rigid hierarchical systematization. The allows Armillas-Tiseyra to approach and grapple with the difficult relationship between critique and narrative form.Less
This essay shows how the idea of the South Atlantic as a space
of dictatorships and banana republics was contested on the ground by literary experimentation and transoceanic influence. Armillas- Tiseyra uses Sony Labou Tansi’s La vie et demie (Life and a Half 1979) as an example of a dictator novel, a genre that spans the Global South. Armillas-Tiseyra argues for the term “constellation” to be used in place of “magical realism” to classify the genre. “Constellation” here serves as a figure both for the relationship of
individual texts or textual features to each other (a loose configuration or grouping) and for a mode of comparison that proceeds by juxtaposition and collage rather than more rigid hierarchical systematization. The allows Armillas-Tiseyra to approach and grapple with the difficult relationship between critique and narrative form.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Chapter 1 introduces readers to the necessity of archaeological consideration of belief as a primary driving force behind daily decision making and praxis, while providing a brief history of the ...
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Chapter 1 introduces readers to the necessity of archaeological consideration of belief as a primary driving force behind daily decision making and praxis, while providing a brief history of the archaeology of magic and study of magical beliefs. It defines gender and situates it in relationship to the use of magic in the seventeenth century to create protective barriers. To reveal the traditional beliefs and rationales behind such practices requires knowledge of the folklore of the people under study. Finally, it provides chapter summaries to guide readers through the remainder of the volume.Less
Chapter 1 introduces readers to the necessity of archaeological consideration of belief as a primary driving force behind daily decision making and praxis, while providing a brief history of the archaeology of magic and study of magical beliefs. It defines gender and situates it in relationship to the use of magic in the seventeenth century to create protective barriers. To reveal the traditional beliefs and rationales behind such practices requires knowledge of the folklore of the people under study. Finally, it provides chapter summaries to guide readers through the remainder of the volume.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0002
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
To ground the study of magic and archaeology in seventeenth-century New England within the broader field of anthropological magical belief scholarship, this chapter provides a general discussion of ...
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To ground the study of magic and archaeology in seventeenth-century New England within the broader field of anthropological magical belief scholarship, this chapter provides a general discussion of magic with definitions of sympathetic magic, ritual, magical worldview, and apotropaism. Discussion of boundary and threshold concepts and explanations of how magic is believed to function includes notions of secrecy, conflict, and body-house interfacing. The chapter concludes with comparative cultural examples of gendered magical practices, like the construction of kolams, to substantiate the possibility that magical use could also have had a gendered aspect in New England.Less
To ground the study of magic and archaeology in seventeenth-century New England within the broader field of anthropological magical belief scholarship, this chapter provides a general discussion of magic with definitions of sympathetic magic, ritual, magical worldview, and apotropaism. Discussion of boundary and threshold concepts and explanations of how magic is believed to function includes notions of secrecy, conflict, and body-house interfacing. The chapter concludes with comparative cultural examples of gendered magical practices, like the construction of kolams, to substantiate the possibility that magical use could also have had a gendered aspect in New England.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0003
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter explores the theories used in this study. Focusing especially on agency and fear theories, this chapter provides an in depth look at what the emotion of fear entails and how it affects ...
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This chapter explores the theories used in this study. Focusing especially on agency and fear theories, this chapter provides an in depth look at what the emotion of fear entails and how it affects human behavior. A common response to fearful situations involves casting anomalous dangers into recognizable creatures. Thus, motivated by their fears and empowered through their actions (agency), one viable resource available to women and men in seventeenth-century New England to protect themselves from these creatures and dangerous situations was the use of magical objects that may be specifically associated with gender activity areas.Less
This chapter explores the theories used in this study. Focusing especially on agency and fear theories, this chapter provides an in depth look at what the emotion of fear entails and how it affects human behavior. A common response to fearful situations involves casting anomalous dangers into recognizable creatures. Thus, motivated by their fears and empowered through their actions (agency), one viable resource available to women and men in seventeenth-century New England to protect themselves from these creatures and dangerous situations was the use of magical objects that may be specifically associated with gender activity areas.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0004
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter establishes the cultural context for this work by first examining the worldview and magical mindset shared by seventeenth-century Christians, explaining how a magical understanding of ...
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This chapter establishes the cultural context for this work by first examining the worldview and magical mindset shared by seventeenth-century Christians, explaining how a magical understanding of both the universe and the workings of a Christian deity were culturally logical to New Englanders. It provides a detailed example of the use of numerology, right-left orientation, symbolism, and the Doctrine of Signatures in charms, rituals, and other magical practices to illustrate the complex and embedded nature of religious belief, worldview, and cosmology that inform magical thought and practice.Less
This chapter establishes the cultural context for this work by first examining the worldview and magical mindset shared by seventeenth-century Christians, explaining how a magical understanding of both the universe and the workings of a Christian deity were culturally logical to New Englanders. It provides a detailed example of the use of numerology, right-left orientation, symbolism, and the Doctrine of Signatures in charms, rituals, and other magical practices to illustrate the complex and embedded nature of religious belief, worldview, and cosmology that inform magical thought and practice.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0006
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The process of locating and evaluating historical data sources is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of the detailed magical references abstracted from historic archives. The sources are ...
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The process of locating and evaluating historical data sources is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of the detailed magical references abstracted from historic archives. The sources are divided into primary and secondary general historical sources including letters, diaries, magical treatises and compilations, sermons, magical symbolism, and herbal collections and the documentary evidence from the Salem witch trials and other court proceedings. These sources provide the first glimpse into concerns over threshold permeability and the use of gender related magic as a crisis response to protect those domestic boundaries.Less
The process of locating and evaluating historical data sources is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of the detailed magical references abstracted from historic archives. The sources are divided into primary and secondary general historical sources including letters, diaries, magical treatises and compilations, sermons, magical symbolism, and herbal collections and the documentary evidence from the Salem witch trials and other court proceedings. These sources provide the first glimpse into concerns over threshold permeability and the use of gender related magic as a crisis response to protect those domestic boundaries.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The process of locating and evaluating folkloristic data sources is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of the detailed magical references abstracted from those sources. The sources include ...
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The process of locating and evaluating folkloristic data sources is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of the detailed magical references abstracted from those sources. The sources include multiple folklore collections gathered in Britain and New England. These sources provide at times a repetition of information from the historic sources, like the rationale of the Doctrine of Signatures, and in other instances references to beliefs, objects, and practices not noted in any historic documents including ideas about magical plants and some supernatural beings. These examples provide an additional layer of information into who was using magic during this period, why they used it, and how it manifested, specifically the use of gender related magic as a crisis response to a host of perceived dangers.Less
The process of locating and evaluating folkloristic data sources is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of the detailed magical references abstracted from those sources. The sources include multiple folklore collections gathered in Britain and New England. These sources provide at times a repetition of information from the historic sources, like the rationale of the Doctrine of Signatures, and in other instances references to beliefs, objects, and practices not noted in any historic documents including ideas about magical plants and some supernatural beings. These examples provide an additional layer of information into who was using magic during this period, why they used it, and how it manifested, specifically the use of gender related magic as a crisis response to a host of perceived dangers.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0008
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The process of locating and evaluating the chosen archaeological sites for this work is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of any artifacts with potential for magical interpretation. Issues ...
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The process of locating and evaluating the chosen archaeological sites for this work is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of any artifacts with potential for magical interpretation. Issues of archaeological recordation and site formation processes are discussed to explain the paucity of the chosen site type. Five New England sites met the appropriate criteria for consideration: Chadbourne site, John Alden site, Jireh Bull Garrison House, Greene Farm Archaeology Project, and John Howland House site. Each site’s history and any potential magical symbolism and artifacts are discussed. Additionally, two common types of archaeologically recovered intentionally concealed objects (witch bottles and shoes) are discussed to question why examples were not located at the five sites reviewed here.Less
The process of locating and evaluating the chosen archaeological sites for this work is presented here as a prelude to the analysis of any artifacts with potential for magical interpretation. Issues of archaeological recordation and site formation processes are discussed to explain the paucity of the chosen site type. Five New England sites met the appropriate criteria for consideration: Chadbourne site, John Alden site, Jireh Bull Garrison House, Greene Farm Archaeology Project, and John Howland House site. Each site’s history and any potential magical symbolism and artifacts are discussed. Additionally, two common types of archaeologically recovered intentionally concealed objects (witch bottles and shoes) are discussed to question why examples were not located at the five sites reviewed here.
C. Riley Augé
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813066110
- eISBN:
- 9780813058597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813066110.003.0009
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This final chapter revisits the volume’s goals to draw conclusions about apotropaic material culture classification and its archaeological presence, the relationship between gendered fear and ...
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This final chapter revisits the volume’s goals to draw conclusions about apotropaic material culture classification and its archaeological presence, the relationship between gendered fear and apotropaic use, risk management contexts, and boundary construction implications based upon the data abstracted, analyzed, and interpreted through the book. At this point a revised criterion model for recognition of magic and ritual in the historical archaeological record is offered for future researchers as a complementary model to the ritual identification model that is currently available and most referenced by archaeologists attempting to recognize and understand indications of belief in magical power in the archaeological record. Lastly, recommendations are proposed for continuing historical and archaeological investigation of magic including sacred measurement, plants, and symbols as elements revealing gendered behaviors to protect and control their lives.Less
This final chapter revisits the volume’s goals to draw conclusions about apotropaic material culture classification and its archaeological presence, the relationship between gendered fear and apotropaic use, risk management contexts, and boundary construction implications based upon the data abstracted, analyzed, and interpreted through the book. At this point a revised criterion model for recognition of magic and ritual in the historical archaeological record is offered for future researchers as a complementary model to the ritual identification model that is currently available and most referenced by archaeologists attempting to recognize and understand indications of belief in magical power in the archaeological record. Lastly, recommendations are proposed for continuing historical and archaeological investigation of magic including sacred measurement, plants, and symbols as elements revealing gendered behaviors to protect and control their lives.
Emily Ruth Rutter
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817129
- eISBN:
- 9781496817167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817129.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
Chapter 2 contends that Jay Neugeboren’s Sam’s Legacy (1974), John Craig’s Chappie and Me (1979), and Jerome Charyn’s The Seventh Babe (1979) extend William Brashler’s and John Badham’s work by ...
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Chapter 2 contends that Jay Neugeboren’s Sam’s Legacy (1974), John Craig’s Chappie and Me (1979), and Jerome Charyn’s The Seventh Babe (1979) extend William Brashler’s and John Badham’s work by bringing black baseball out of the shadows. However, at the same time that these novels honor the achievements of black ballplayers, they draw on tropes of the “magical negro” and/or the “white savior.” Ultimately, this chapter and the previous one demonstrate the implicit ways in which white privilege works its way into literature, as these novelists redress the absence of black baseball in our national consciousness (and our archives), while choosing not to make the humanity of the players their chief concern.Less
Chapter 2 contends that Jay Neugeboren’s Sam’s Legacy (1974), John Craig’s Chappie and Me (1979), and Jerome Charyn’s The Seventh Babe (1979) extend William Brashler’s and John Badham’s work by bringing black baseball out of the shadows. However, at the same time that these novels honor the achievements of black ballplayers, they draw on tropes of the “magical negro” and/or the “white savior.” Ultimately, this chapter and the previous one demonstrate the implicit ways in which white privilege works its way into literature, as these novelists redress the absence of black baseball in our national consciousness (and our archives), while choosing not to make the humanity of the players their chief concern.
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691156934
- eISBN:
- 9780691186092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156934.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This concluding chapter assesses why the label of “magic” is applied, by whom, to whom, and in what circumstances. Many of the things labeled as “magic”—curses or prayers or divinatory rituals—may, ...
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This concluding chapter assesses why the label of “magic” is applied, by whom, to whom, and in what circumstances. Many of the things labeled as “magic”—curses or prayers or divinatory rituals—may, depending on the circumstances, be regarded as perfectly normative. However, these ritual acts may also be considered non-normative if the same things are done by different people in different contexts (social location) or with different claims to power and authority (efficacy). The chapter then considers the ways these cues of social location and efficacy are used in the discourse of magic, both for the labeling of the self and of others. For other-labeling, the dynamics are especially clear in the legal arena, where the community or its representative are deciding where that person fits within the community. In such evidence, claims of extraordinary efficacy remain secondary to the cue of the social location of the performer. By contrast, self-labeling is much rarer and appears only in limited kinds of evidence, such as the Greek Magical Papyri, but the cue of extraordinary efficacy is the most important, and claims to extraordinary social location tend to be secondary to it. The appearance of such self-labeling, however, is unusual in the discourse of magic found in other cultures, so these examples are particularly revealing for the nature of the discourse of magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world.Less
This concluding chapter assesses why the label of “magic” is applied, by whom, to whom, and in what circumstances. Many of the things labeled as “magic”—curses or prayers or divinatory rituals—may, depending on the circumstances, be regarded as perfectly normative. However, these ritual acts may also be considered non-normative if the same things are done by different people in different contexts (social location) or with different claims to power and authority (efficacy). The chapter then considers the ways these cues of social location and efficacy are used in the discourse of magic, both for the labeling of the self and of others. For other-labeling, the dynamics are especially clear in the legal arena, where the community or its representative are deciding where that person fits within the community. In such evidence, claims of extraordinary efficacy remain secondary to the cue of the social location of the performer. By contrast, self-labeling is much rarer and appears only in limited kinds of evidence, such as the Greek Magical Papyri, but the cue of extraordinary efficacy is the most important, and claims to extraordinary social location tend to be secondary to it. The appearance of such self-labeling, however, is unusual in the discourse of magic found in other cultures, so these examples are particularly revealing for the nature of the discourse of magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
David E. James
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199387595
- eISBN:
- 9780199387632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199387595.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
After the success of A Hard Day’s Night, Lester’s Help! broke no new ground, and the Beatles decided to take control of their own cinema. Turning to film styles and modes of production more akin to ...
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After the success of A Hard Day’s Night, Lester’s Help! broke no new ground, and the Beatles decided to take control of their own cinema. Turning to film styles and modes of production more akin to their musical innovations and thus outside the studio system, these incorporated developments in documentary in Magical Mystery Tour (1967) and Let It Be (1970), the latter of which covered their final album and breakup. A Hard Day’s Night’s role in the Beatles’ success inspired other bands to make a variety of movies that more or less imitated them, including Gerry and the Pacemakers’ Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965); the Rutles’ All You Need Is Cash (1978), and the Monkees’ Head (1968).Less
After the success of A Hard Day’s Night, Lester’s Help! broke no new ground, and the Beatles decided to take control of their own cinema. Turning to film styles and modes of production more akin to their musical innovations and thus outside the studio system, these incorporated developments in documentary in Magical Mystery Tour (1967) and Let It Be (1970), the latter of which covered their final album and breakup. A Hard Day’s Night’s role in the Beatles’ success inspired other bands to make a variety of movies that more or less imitated them, including Gerry and the Pacemakers’ Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965); the Rutles’ All You Need Is Cash (1978), and the Monkees’ Head (1968).
E. H. Rick Jarow
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197566633
- eISBN:
- 9780197566671
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197566633.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter makes a case for the study of the Meghadūta within the study of world literature and literary visions of the environment. It discusses the sensibilities of classical Indian poetry ...
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This chapter makes a case for the study of the Meghadūta within the study of world literature and literary visions of the environment. It discusses the sensibilities of classical Indian poetry (kāvya) and gives an overview of the history of studies of Indian poetry in the West. The next section summarizes the plot and structure of the Meghadūta, Kālidāsa’s celebrated lyric poem about the imagined journey of a cloud through the landscape of India to deliver a message from the protagonist (Yaksha) to his absent beloved. The “tantric sensibility” of the text is discussed along with the importance of the poem’s vision of the natural world.Less
This chapter makes a case for the study of the Meghadūta within the study of world literature and literary visions of the environment. It discusses the sensibilities of classical Indian poetry (kāvya) and gives an overview of the history of studies of Indian poetry in the West. The next section summarizes the plot and structure of the Meghadūta, Kālidāsa’s celebrated lyric poem about the imagined journey of a cloud through the landscape of India to deliver a message from the protagonist (Yaksha) to his absent beloved. The “tantric sensibility” of the text is discussed along with the importance of the poem’s vision of the natural world.