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Magic: A Very Short Introduction [#299]
Magic: A Very Short Introduction [#299]
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  • Magic is a topic of constant fasciation and interest which can described in various ways - supernatural, superstition, simple illusion, religious miracles, and fantasies of the imagination
  • Wide-ranging overview of how magic has been defined, understood, and practised
  • Highlights the controversy, conflict, and debate it has caused over the last two millennia
  • Considers how magic and science are intertwined
  • Split into two main sections: theory and practice

 
Defining 'magic' is a maddening task. Over the last century numerous philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and theologians have attempted to pin down its essential meaning, sometimes analysing it in such complex and abstruse depth that it all but loses its sense altogether. For this reason, many people often shy away from providing a detailed definition, assuming it is generally understood as the human control of supernatural forces. 

'Magic' continues to pervade the popular imagination and idiom. People feel comfortable with its contemporary multiple meanings, unaware of the controversy, conflict, and debate its definition has caused over two and a half millennia. In common usage today 'magic' is uttered in reference to the supernatural, superstition, illusion, trickery, religious miracles, fantasies, and as a simple superlative. The literary confection known as 'magical realism' has considerable appeal and many modern scientists have ironically incorporated the word into their vocabulary, with their 'magic acid', 'magic bullets' and 'magic angles'.

Since the so-called European Enlightenment magic has often been seen as a marker of primitivism, of a benighted earlier stage of human development. Yet across the modern globalized world hundreds of millions continue to resort to magic - and also to fear it. Magic provides explanations and remedies for those living in extreme poverty and without access to alternatives. In the industrial West, with its state welfare systems, religious fundamentalists decry the continued moral threat posed by magic. Under the guise of neo-Paganism, its practice has become a religion in itself. Magic continues to be a truly global issue.

This Very Short Introduction does not attempt to provide a concluding definition of magic: it is beyond simple definition. Instead it explores the many ways in which magic, as an idea and a practice, has been understood and employed over the millennia. 

Index: 

Introduction
1: Anthropologies of magic
2: Historical perspectives
3: All in the mind?
4: Writing magic
5: Practising magic
6: Magic and the modern world
Conclusion

About the author: 

Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. He has written extensively on the history of magic, witchcraft, and ghosts, including Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (OUP, 2009), The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts (Palgrave, 2007), and Paganism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2011).

"Davies explores an impressive range of topics including the basic terminology of magic, major theoretical approaches to the subject, the tradition of written magic, its use as a strategy for excluding others and defining ones own group, and the revival of magic in the context of contemporary paganism. ... The book is interspersed with a selection of photographs and illustrations, and it is well worth such a modest outlay." - Juliette Wood, Folklore

Product details

ISBN : 9780199588022

Author: 
Owen Davies
Pages
152 Pages
Format
Paperback
Size
111 x 174 mm
Pub date
Jan 2012
Series
Very Short Introductions
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Magic: A Very Short Introduction [#299]

Magic: A Very Short Introduction [#299]

Magic: A Very Short Introduction [#299]