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Kimberly B. Stratton presents an innovative approach to understanding ancient depictions and accusations of magic as forms of discourse, examining their role in struggles to define legitimate power and authority. She traces ¿magic discourse¿ from Classical Greece to the Babylonian Talmud, illuminating powerful stereotypes of sorcery and witches.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Magic, Discourse, and Ideology
2. Barbarians, Magic, and Construction of the Other in Athens
3. Mascula Libido: Women, Sex, and Magic in Roman Rhetoric and Ideology
4. My Miracle, Your Magic: Heresy, Authority, and Early Christianities
5. Caution in the Kosher Kitchen: Magic, Identity, and Authority in Rabbinic Literature
Epilogue: Some Thoughts on Gender, Magic, and Stereotyping
Notes
Works Cited
Index
About the author
Kimberly B. Stratton is an associate professor in the College of Humanities at Carleton University. She is coeditor of Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in Antiquity (2014) and Crossing Boundaries in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: Ambiguities, Complexities, and Half-Forgotten Adversaries (2016).
Summary
Kimberly B. Stratton presents an innovative approach to understanding ancient depictions and accusations of magic as forms of discourse, examining their role in struggles to define legitimate power and authority. She traces “magic discourse” from Classical Greece to the Babylonian Talmud, illuminating powerful stereotypes of sorcery and witches.
Additional text
This is one of the most stimulating and intelligent of many studies of ancient magic in recent scholarship...
