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In the West we tend to think of witches in terms of the witch
trials, when fear, ignorance and religious fervour brought the poor
to heel, and fostered suspicion of those who dared to be different,
or knowledgeable, or independent of mind. Witches and wizards are
often associated with pre-Christian societies, Celtic in
particular, (and therefore popular in tales of fantasy), but the
nature of their wisdom can be found in so many fascinating cultures
across the world. Ancient societies, particularly where natural
religions with many gods abound, often highlight the power of an
elder, or a seer, a healer or a wise friend. Tales of wizards and
witches reach across traditions as folk try to explain natural
phenomena and engage with the world around them. Those who
understood the properties of healing in plants, or could make a
prediction of weather events to rescue crops, became worshipped as
elders, as keepers of knowledge. In tribal African societies,
Polynesian cultures and East Asian traditions there are tales of
those with great knowledge who are often described as witches or
wizards. The Baba Yaga of Eastern Europe, Bokwewa, the humpback
magician of the Chippewa, Merlin and Morgana la Faye of Arthurian
Legend and the fox witches of Japan are but a few of the many
examples. Some work for good, others with ill-intent, but all
become the focus of folkloric legend, collected here in this new
book of myths and tales.
This is a remarkable popular history of the English Civil War, from
the perspectives of those involved in this most significant turning
point in British history. This compelling history, culminating in
the execution of Charles I, brings to life the people who fought in
it, died in it, and in doing so changed the history of the world
forever. In an excitingly fresh approach to the period, Diane
Purkiss tells the story of this critical era not just in terms of
the battle of ideas, but as the histories of the people who
conceived them. The English Civil War builds a gripping narrative
of the individuals involved and their motives, from those whose
reputations were made on the back of this violent and brutal war,
such as Oliver Cromwell and Lady Eleanor Davies, to witchfinders
and revolutionaries; and ultimately, the ordinary men who fought
and the women who lived with tragedy, finding their political voice
for the first time. The consequences of ten years of bloody
revolution were to stretch from the cities to the villages to the
grand houses, form Ulster to East Anglia to the outer reaches of
Cornwall.The tales uncovered by Diane Purkiss paint a picture of a
world turned upside down, where madness and prophesy play their
part, and where normal life and times are suspended. This important
book uncovers forgotten lives and illustrates incisively the
critical contribution of this extraordinary period in English
history to contemporary politics and society.
First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
Building on recent critical work, this volume offers a
comprehensive consideration of the nature and forms of medieval and
early modern childhoods, viewed through literary cultures. Its five
groups of thematic essays range across a spectrum of disciplines,
periods, and locations, from cultural anthropology and folklore to
performance studies and the history of science, and from
Anglo-Saxon burial sites to colonial America. Contributors include
several renowned writers for children. The opening group of essays,
Educating Children, explores what is perhaps the most powerful
social engine for the shaping of a child. Performing Childhood
addresses children at work and the role of play in the development
of social imitation and learning. Literatures of Childhood examines
texts written for children that reveal alternative conceptions of
parent/child relations. In Legacies of Childhood, expressions of
grief at the loss of a child offer a window into the family's
conceptions and values. Finally, Fictionalizing Literary Cultures
for Children considers the real, material child versus the fantasy
of the child as a subject.
Whether on top of the Christmas tree, at the bottom of the garden,
or in school plays, today fairies are considered sweet, dainty
creatures with wands and butterfly wings. But, as Diane Purkiss
shows, they have far more wicked origins as troublemakers, child
snatchers, seducers, and changelings, representing society's
deepest fears and desires regarding birth, sex, and death. From
these dangerous beings of ancient myths and medieval folklore to
the sanitized "wingy thingies" of Shakespeare and the Victorians,
and even modern myths of alien abduction, this is a riveting
chronicle of the need to believe in fairies.
In this remarkable and original book, Diane Purkiss invites readers
on a unique journey through England's history, told through the
food on its tables. Food has a universality that unites humankind
across the globe today, and can also connect us to our ancestors.
Yet the impact of food on history, and history on food, has long
been neglected. In her compelling new book, Diane Purkiss, author
of The English Civil War traces the foods from our meals to their
historical sources - from bacon and eggs at breakfast to chicken
vindaloo for dinner. She explores the development of the coffee
trade and the birth of London's coffee houses, where views were
exchanged on politics, art and literature. She introduces the first
breeders of British beef, and reveals how cattle triggered the
terrible massacre at Glencoe, where the Macdonalds were attacked by
the Campbells. She takes us for tea, visiting the town bakery, the
pantry and the bee hive, and to the very first ice houses, from
where we witness the rise of commercial English ice-cream. When we
return to the table, our meals will never be the same again.
In this innovative study, Diane Purkiss illuminates the role of
gender in the English Civil War by focusing on ideas of
masculinity, rather than on the role of women, which has hitherto
received more attention. Historians have tended to emphasise a
model of human action in the Civil War based on the idea of the
human self as rational animal. Purkiss reveals the irrational
ideological forces governing the way seventeenth-century writers
understood the state, the monarchy, the battlefield and the epic
hero in relation to contested contemporary ideas of masculinity.
She analyses representations of masculinity in the writings of
Marvell, Waller, Herrick and the Caroline elegists, as well as in
newsbooks and pamphlets, and pays particular attention to Milton's
complex responses to the dilemmas of male identity. This study will
appeal to scholars of seventeenth-century literature as well as
those working in intellectual history and the history of gender.
Histories of witchcraft continue to fascinate us in the late twentieth century. Looking at texts from colonial narratvies to court masques, trial records to folktales, and Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, this book shows how the witch acts as a carrier for the fears, desires and fantasies of women and men both now and in the early modern period. Among other topics, The Witch in History discusses: * the way the fantasy body of the witch, viewed as both hard and boundless, represents fear of the maternal body; * how Macbeth and other Renaissance dramas are exploitative and sensationalist representations of witchcraft; * how the representations of witchcraft in Europe were influenced by encounters in the New World with Native American religion, and vice versa; * how radical feminists, modern witches and academic historians have appropriated the figure of the witch to construct their own identities. This extraordinary and fascinating study goes beyond the exploration of the figure of the witch, comprising an innovative contribution to all early modern studies.
Related link: Reviews in History eBook available with sample pages: 0203359720
The shared aim of these important new critical interventions into
the early modern period is to make fresh feminist attempts to
uncover the writings of Elizabethan and Jacobean women. Subject to
silence, censorship and manipulation in the terms of overriding
political concerns of the day, the feminist history of the early
modern period is still a largely unwritten story. New feminist
analysis can expose the conditions of production in which the
history of the period was constructed: this revealing collection
thereby exposes the untold stories which underpin the official
texts. By beginning to explore this period from women's point of
view, "Women, Texts and Histories" shows the crucial and
fascinating ways in which women's writing may undermine many of the
received assumptions on which the history of the period has
depended. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers
in English literature, history and women's studies.
In this innovative study, first published in 2005, Diane Purkiss
illuminates the role of gender in the English Civil War by focusing
on ideas of masculinity, rather than on the role of women, which
has hitherto received more attention. Historians have tended to
emphasise a model of human action in the Civil War based on the
idea of the human self as rational animal. Purkiss reveals the
irrational ideological forces governing the way seventeenth-century
writers understood the state, the monarchy, the battlefield and the
epic hero in relation to contested contemporary ideas of
masculinity. She analyses the writings of Marvell, Waller, Herrick
and the Caroline elegists, as well as in newsbooks and pamphlets,
and pays particular attention to Milton's complex responses to the
dilemmas of male identity. This study will appeal to scholars of
seventeenth-century literature as well as those working in
intellectual history and the history of gender.
From Macbeth to The Wizard of Oz, from the hysteria of witch trials
to emblems of 20th-century female empowerment, no matter how she is
portrayed, the witch is an enduring source of fear and fascination.
In this study, Diane Purkiss investigates the diverse
interpretations and meanings attributed to the figure of the witch,
encompassing a wide range of cultural norms which include Canonical
literature, such as Shelley and Yeats, visual arts, fairy tales,
folklore and real-life witch stories. Also considered are
pornography and sado-masochism, film, from the classic Swedish
Haxan to The Witches of Eastwick, and the stage, including
Shakespeare and Jonson.
Building on recent critical work, this volume offers a
comprehensive consideration of the nature and forms of medieval and
early modern childhoods, viewed through literary cultures. Its five
groups of thematic essays range across a spectrum of disciplines,
periods, and locations, from cultural anthropology and folklore to
performance studies and the history of science, and from
Anglo-Saxon burial sites to colonial America. Contributors include
several renowned writers for children. The opening group of essays,
Educating Children, explores what is perhaps the most powerful
social engine for the shaping of a child. Performing Childhood
addresses children at work and the role of play in the development
of social imitation and learning. Literatures of Childhood examines
texts written for children that reveal alternative conceptions of
parent/child relations. In Legacies of Childhood, expressions of
grief at the loss of a child offer a window into the family's
conceptions and values. Finally, Fictionalizing Literary Cultures
for Children considers the real, material child versus the fantasy
of the child as a subject.
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