Beyond Magic in the Roman World reconsiders how Romans understood ritual, deviance, and alterity by moving past the modern category of 'magic.' Instead of treating magic as a single system, Andrew Durdin reveals how Roman authors used labels of ritual deviance to negotiate cultural diversity, social tension, and political authority. Drawing on texts from the late Roman Republic through the Principate, and written by Cicero, Lucan, Pliny, Tacitus, and Apuleius, he offers clear, engaging explanations as to how Romans classified the unfamiliar. The result is a vivid portrait of a society using language, accusation, and imagination to make sense of an expanding world. Durdin's book equips readers with the tools to recognize how scholarly categories – especially 'magic' – carry colonial and imperial legacies that shape interpretation. Accessible and compelling, his study will appeal to readers of Roman history, ancient religion, and anyone curious about how cultures create – and contest – categories of difference.
Just like a magician, spiritual guide or modern-day witch, poets use their craft to tap into the inherent power of language as an agent of change, willing words to construct and alter reality through intentional acts and performances.
Through an examination of the linguistic, historical, and affective poetics of magic...
The present paper is an attempt to decode the deep, intricate emotional, psychological and symbolic bonds and connections between humans and the fantastical magical creatures and their mystical world in contemporary fantasy literature. The theme of magic, fantasy and magical world have always mesmerized the readers, th...
This Element argues that early modern witchcraft (discourse, visual imagery and trials) in Scotland, England, Ireland and America demonised, devalued and disqualified non-normative bodies and minds. Using interpretative frameworks of monstrosity and deformity, while working within wider religious and medical understand...
The encounter between Christianity and African cultures continues to provoke critical reflection on identity, meaning, and the expression of faith within sacramental life. Among the Igbo of south-eastern Nigeria, names are far more than mere identifiers; they embody communal memory, philosophical insight, and deeply he...
Joelmary Okafor· IKEMBA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL...· 0 citations
This article examines the role of poetry published in the late nineteenth-century Lithuanian monthly periodicals Aušra (The Dawn, 1883– 1886) and Varpas (The Bell, 1889–1905) in shaping modern Lithuanian national consciousness. Although Aušra has traditionally been interpreted within the paradigm of Romanticism, the ar...
This article reconsiders the relationship between religions and the environment from a historical and methodological perspective. It argues that the ecological orientation of a religious tradition cannot be deduced directly from its sacred texts, since texts become socially effective only through a range of mediating p...
Isabella Gagliardi· World· 0 citations
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