April
2007
Nouvelle publication - The Meanings of Magic from the Bible to Buffalo Bill - Amy Wygant, editor
Published by Berghahn Books, Oxford and New York (Polygons: Cultural Diversities and Intersections, vol. 11)www.berghahnbooks.com
252 pages, hardback, $80/ £47
ISBN 978-1-84545-178-3
Synopsis:
The notion of ‘magic’ is a current popular culture phenomenon: Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, the commercial glamour of the footballer and the pop idol surround us with their charisma, enchantment, and charm. But magic also exerts a terrifying political hold upon us: the alleged 28 March bin Laden email message spoke of the attacks on the U.S. in form of ‘crushing its towers, disgracing its arrogance, undoing its magic’. The nine scholars included in this volume consider the cultural power of magic, from early Christianity and the ancient Mediterranean to the curious film career of Buffalo Bill, focusing on topics such as Surrealism, France in the classical age, alchemy, and American fundamentalism, ranging from popular to elite magic, from theory to practice, from demonology to exoticism, from the magic of memory to the magic of the stage. As these essays show, magic defines the limit of both science and religion but as such remains indefinable.
Contents:
Amy Wygant: Introduction: Magic, Glamour, Curses
David S. Katz: Magic and the Millennium Mark Brummitt: Showman or Shaman? The Acts of a Biblical Prophet
John G. Gager: Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in the Greco-Roman World
Justin Meggitt: Magic, Healing and Early Christianity: Consumption and Competition
Nicholas Hammond: All the Devils: Port-Royal and Pedagogy in Seventeenth-Century France
Sara E. Melzer: The Magic of French Culture: Transforming ‘Savages’ into French Catholics in Seventeenth-Century France
David Weston: A Magus of the North? Professor John Ferguson and his Library
Amy Wygant: The Golden Fleece and Harry Potter
Ronald G. Walters: Cowboys and Magicians: Buffalo Bill, Houdini and Real Magic
Alyce Mahon: The Search for a New Dimension: Surrealism and Magic
About the editor: Amy Wygant lectures in French at the University of Glasgow and publishes on tragedy, witchcraft and psychoanalysis.
