Witches, ghosts and monsters: Cultural history of magic, witchcraft and the supernatural in Britain - MA Seminar 3 3301-KBS3RUT02
Modern popular culture often uses supernatural themes: in literature and film there live vampires, werewolves, ghosts, wizards, witches, people with incredible abilities, etc. It must be stressed that all these motifs have not appeared from nowhere - on the contrary, they have a long and fascinating history, adapted now by novelists and scriptwriters.
The purpose of the seminar is to trace the history of the key supernatural motifs and cultural schemes; to find out a) from where they have come, b) what role they played in the pre-modern culture (in the Middle Ages and the early modern period) and c) how they are nowadays used in popular culture. The seminar students will have an opportunity to have a glimpse into mentality of our ancestors for whom it was taken for granted that the supernatural may interfere with their lives and material reality in general.
The list of seminar topics will include:
- definition and classification of magic and its relationship with religion,
- magic in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (with references to ancient magic),
- origin and features of vampire beliefs,
- cultural meaning of monsters,
- role of miracles/wonders, portents and omens in the traditional culture,
- history of witchcraft and witch-trials in Europe (especially in the early modern period),
- decline of magic and supernatural paradigm that led to gradually replacing it with the scientific model of the world,
- traditional ghost lore and its later variants (e.g. the 19th-century spiritualism and mediumship),
- the use of traditional cultural motifs in modern popular culture.
The list above is not final - it may be extended and modified according to interests of the students.
Work in class will be based on the analysis of primary sources.
The purpose of specialization classes related to the seminar is to acquaint the students with a general historical context of the issues in question as well as with cultural history methodology, necessary for writing an MA thesis.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Students will acquire advanced knowledge about the history of mentality in past ages and its connections with modern culture. They also develop their analytical skills.
Bibliography
Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius. Three Books of Occult Philosophy (London, 1650).
Baxter, Richard. The Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits (London, 1691).
Betz, Hans Dieter (ed.). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation including the Demotic Spells (Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press, 1986).
Gibson, Marion (ed.). Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550–1750 (London: Continuum, 2003).
Glanvill, Joseph. Saducismus Triumphatus (London, 1688).
Kors, Alan Charles, Peters, Edward (eds.). Witchcraft in Europe 400–1700. A Documentary History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).
Kramer, Heinrich, Sprenger, Jacob. Malleus maleficarum (London: Rodker, 1928).
Luck, Georg (ed.). Arcana Mundi. Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. A Collection of Ancient Texts (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).
Rosen, Barbara (ed.). Witchcraft in England, 1558–1618 (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1991).
Additional information
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