Magic, Body and the Self in Eighteenth-Century Sweden

Magic, Body and the Self in Eighteenth-Century Sweden PDF Author: Jacqueline Van Gent
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004171142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Contrary to previous assumptions, magic remained an integral part of everyday life in Enlightenment Europe. This book demonstrates that the endurance of magical practices, both benevolent and malevolent, was grounded in early modern perceptions of an interconnected body, self and spiritual cosmos. Drawing on eighteenth-century Swedish witchcraft trials, which are exceptionally detailed, these notions of embodiment and selfhood are explored in depth. The nuanced analysis of healing magic, the role of emotions, the politics of evidence and proof and the very ambiguity of magical rituals reveals a surprising syncretism of Christian and pre-Christian elements. The book provides a unique insight to the history of magic and witchcraft, the study of eighteenth-century religion and culture, and to our understanding of body and self in the past.

Magic, Body and the Self in Eighteenth-Century Sweden

Magic, Body and the Self in Eighteenth-Century Sweden PDF Author: Jacqueline Van Gent
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004171142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Contrary to previous assumptions, magic remained an integral part of everyday life in Enlightenment Europe. This book demonstrates that the endurance of magical practices, both benevolent and malevolent, was grounded in early modern perceptions of an interconnected body, self and spiritual cosmos. Drawing on eighteenth-century Swedish witchcraft trials, which are exceptionally detailed, these notions of embodiment and selfhood are explored in depth. The nuanced analysis of healing magic, the role of emotions, the politics of evidence and proof and the very ambiguity of magical rituals reveals a surprising syncretism of Christian and pre-Christian elements. The book provides a unique insight to the history of magic and witchcraft, the study of eighteenth-century religion and culture, and to our understanding of body and self in the past.

Premodern Beliefs and Witch Trials in a Swedish Province, 1669-1672

Premodern Beliefs and Witch Trials in a Swedish Province, 1669-1672 PDF Author: Göran Malmstedt
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030761207
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
This book examines the worldview and perceptions of reality that formed the setting for the witch trials held in the Swedish province of Bohuslän in 1669-1672. The first part of the book explores the conduct of the trials and provides, among other things, an analysis of the defendants and of the various accusations from neighbours and the court. The following parts analyse the perceptions of reality found in the statements made in court by witnesses and the accused. The topics addressed include the relationship between dreams and reality, belief in shape-shifting, the power of words, emotions, and magically charged matters, as well as perceptions of God and the Devil. The beliefs that surfaced during the trials were part of a general mentality that characterised people’s perception of the world, both before and after the trials. As the records from the prolonged cross-examinations of the accused are unusually detailed, the defendant’s statements, together with accusations, testimonies, and the courts’ questions, provides a unique insight into premodern worldviews.

King's Sister--queen of Dissent

King's Sister--queen of Dissent PDF Author: Jonathan A. Reid
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Evangelicalism
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
"This study reconstructs for the first time Marguerite of Navarre's leadership of a broad circle of nobles, prelates, humanist authors, and commoners, who sought to advance the reform of the French church along evangelical (Protestant) lines. Hitherto misunderstood in scholarship, they are revealed to have pursued, despite persecution, a consistent reform program from the Meaux experiment to the end of Francis I's reign through a variety of means: fostering local church reform, publishing a large corpus of religious literature, high-profile public preaching, and attempting to shape the direction of royal policy. Their distinctive doctrines, relations with major reformers - including their erstwhile colleague Calvin - involvement in major Reformation events, and the impact of their unsuccessful attempt are all explored."--Publisher's website.

Beyond the Witch Trials

Beyond the Witch Trials PDF Author: Owen Davies
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719066603
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Beyond the witch trials provides an important collection of essays on the nature of witchcraft and magic in European society during the Enlightenment. The book is innovative not only because it pushes forward the study of witchcraft into the eighteenth century, but because it provides the reader with a challenging variety of different approaches and sources of information. The essays, which cover England, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Scotland, Finland and Sweden, examine the experience of and attitudes towards witchcraft from both above and below. While they demonstrate the continued widespread fear of witches amongst the masses, they also provide a corrective to the notion that intellectual society lost interest in the question of witchcraft. While witchcraft prosecutions were comparatively rare by the mid-eighteenth century, the intellectual debate did no disappear; it either became more private or refocused on such issues as possession. The contributors come from different academic disciplines, and by borrowing from literary theory, archaeology and folklore they move beyond the usual historical perspectives and sources. They emphasise the importance of studying such themes as the aftermath of witch trials, the continued role of cunning-folk in society, and the nature of the witchcraft discourse in different social contexts. This book will be essential reading for those interested in the decline of the European witch trials and the continued importance of witchcraft and magic during the Enlightenment. More generally it will appeal to those with a lively interest in the cultural history of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is the first of a two-volume set of books looking at the phenomenon of witchcraft, magic and the occult in Europe since the seventeenth century.

The British National Bibliography

The British National Bibliography PDF Author: Arthur James Wells
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bibliography, National
Languages : en
Pages : 2744

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Book Description


Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Enlightenment

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Enlightenment PDF Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: Routledge Studies in the History of Witchcraft, Demonology and Magic
ISBN: 9780367502768
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Enlightenment argues for the centrality of magical practices and ideas throughout the long eighteenth-century. Although the hunt for witches in Europe declined precipitously after 1650, and the intellectual justification for natural magic came under fire by 1700, belief in magic among the general population did not come to a sudden stop. The philosophes continued to take aim at magical practices, alongside religion, as examples of superstitions that an enlightened age needed to put behind them. In addition to a continuity of beliefs and practices, the eighteenth century also saw improvement and innovation in magical ideas, the understanding of ghosts, and attitudes toward witchcraft. The volume takes a broad geographical approach and includes essays focusing on Great Britain (England and Ireland), France, Germany, and Hungary. It also takes a wide approach to the subject and includes essays on astrology, alchemy, witchcraft, cunning folk, ghosts, treasure hunters, and purveyors of magic. With a broad chronological scope that ranges from the end of the seventeenth century into the early nineteenth century, this volume is useful for undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars as well as those with a general interest in magic, witchcraft, and spirits in the Enlightenment.

Body & Text in the Eighteenth Century

Body & Text in the Eighteenth Century PDF Author: Veronica Kelly
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780804722698
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Scholars from the fields of English, French, and German literature analyze the complex appearances of the human body at the centers and limits of the cultural production of meaning.

Trials of the Self

Trials of the Self PDF Author: Elwin Hofman
Publisher: Studies in Early Modern Europe
ISBN: 9781526153142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Duellists, drunks and remorseful murderers populate Trials of the self, which highlights the criminal court as a space for publicising and negotiating models of the self. Using criminal trial records, the book argues that inner depth became increasingly important around 1800, not only for elites, but also for common people.

The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West

The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West PDF Author: David J. Collins, S. J.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316239497
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1240

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Book Description
This book presents twenty chapters by experts in their fields, providing a thorough and interdisciplinary overview of the theory and practice of magic in the West. Its chronological scope extends from the Ancient Near East to twenty-first-century North America; its objects of analysis range from Persian curse tablets to US neo-paganism. For comparative purposes, the volume includes chapters on developments in the Jewish and Muslim worlds, evaluated not simply for what they contributed at various points to European notions of magic, but also as models of alternative development in ancient Mediterranean legacy. Similarly, the volume highlights the transformative and challenging encounters of Europeans with non-Europeans, regarding the practice of magic in both early modern colonization and more recent decolonization.

Executing Magic in the Modern Era

Executing Magic in the Modern Era PDF Author: Owen Davies
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319595199
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license This book explores the magical and medical history of executions from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century by looking at the afterlife potency of criminal corpses, the healing activities of the executioner, and the magic of the gallows site. The use of corpses in medicine and magic has been recorded back into antiquity. The lacerated bodies of Roman gladiators were used as a source of curative blood, for instance. In early modern Europe, a great trade opened up in ancient Egyptian mummies and the fat of executed criminals, plundered as medicinal cure-alls. However, this is the first book to consider the demand for the blood of the executed, the desire for human fat, the resort to the hanged man’s hand, and the trade in hanging rope in the modern era. It ends by look at the spiritual afterlife of dead criminals.