Rituals, Images, and Words

Rituals, Images, and Words
Author: Francis William Kent
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN:

The focus of this collection is on processes of cultural communication in late medieval/early modern European society and the part which these resources play in shaping community and fashioning self and group identity.

Images and Objects in Ritual Practices in Medieval and Early Modern Northern and Central Europe

Images and Objects in Ritual Practices in Medieval and Early Modern Northern and Central Europe
Author: Krista Kodres
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2014-07-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1443864285

This multidisciplinary collection of essays explores the functions, meanings and use of images and objects in various late Medieval and Early Modern social practices, which were linked by their ritual character. The book approaches ‘ritual’ as an action which is discussed under the general umbrella term “performative practice”, and is characterised by a synthesis between the repetitive and the extraordinary that carries an intense symbolic meaning and is emotionally charged. Images, spaces and rituals were closely interconnected in both the religious and the secular spheres, and played a relevant role in the symbolic communication of the time. The essays in this volume are devoted to a complex study of these phenomena in Northern and Central Europe, including regions which, due to linguistic or cultural barriers, have thus far received comparatively little attention in Anglo-American scholarship, including Scandinavia, Poland and the Baltic states.

Picatrix

Picatrix
Author:
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2020-04-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0271084154

A manual for constructing talismans, mixing magical compounds, summoning planetary spirits, and determining astrological conditions, Picatrix is a cornerstone of Western esotericism. It offers important insights not only into occult practices and beliefs but also into the transmission of magical ideas from antiquity to the present. Dan Attrell and David Porreca’s English translation opens the world of this vital medieval treatise to modern-day scholars and lay readers. The original text, Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, was compiled in Arabic from over two hundred sources in the latter half of the tenth century. It was translated into Castilian Spanish in the mid-thirteenth century, and shortly thereafter into Latin. Based on David Pingree’s edition of the Latin text, this translation captures the spirit of Picatrix’s role in the European tradition. In the world of Picatrix, we see a seamless integration of practical magic, earnest piety, and traditional philosophy. The detailed introduction considers the text’s reception through multiple iterations and includes an enlightening statistical breakdown of the rituals described in the book. Framed by extensive research on the ancient and medieval context that gave rise to the Latin version of the text, this translation of Picatrix will be an indispensable volume for students and scholars of the history of science, magic, and religion and will fascinate anyone interested in the occult.

Poetic Images, Presence, and the Theater of Kenotic Rituals

Poetic Images, Presence, and the Theater of Kenotic Rituals
Author: Enikő Sepsi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2021-09-29
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1000453324

This book explores the interrelation of contemporary French theatre and poetry. Using the pictorial turn in the various branches of art and science, its observable features, and the theoretical framework of the conceptual metaphor, this study seeks to gather together the divergent manners in which French poetry and theatre address this turn. Poetry in space and theatricality of poetry are studied alongside theatre, especially to the performative aspect of the originally theological concept of "kenosis". In doing so the author attempts to make use of the theological concept of kenosis, of central importance in Novarina’s oeuvre, for theatrical and dramatological purposes. Within poetic rituals, kenotic rituals are also examined in the book in a few theatrical practices – János Pilinszky and Robert Wilson, Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba – facilitating a better understanding of Novarina’s works. Accompanied by new English translations in the appendices, this is the first English language monograph related to the French essayist, dramaturg and director Valère Novarina’s theatre, and will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and literature studies.

Teaching Through the Ill Body

Teaching Through the Ill Body
Author: Marla Morris
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9087904312

This book raises questions around pedagogy and illness. Morris explores two large issues that run through the text. What does the ill body teach? What does the teacher do through the ill body?

Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects

Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects
Author: Claudia Orenstein
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2024-10-17
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1040147194

This anthology of essays, a companion to Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, Volume I, aims to explore the many types of relationships that exist between puppets, broadly speaking, and the immaterial world. The allure of the puppet goes beyond its material presence as, historically and throughout the globe, many uses of puppets and related objects have expressed and capitalized on their posited connections to other realms or ability to serve as vessels or conduits for immaterial presence. The flip side of the puppet’s troubling uncanniness is precisely the possibilities it represents for connecting to discarnate realities. Where do we see such connections in contemporary artistic work in various mediums? How do puppets open avenues for discussion in a world that seems to be increasingly polarized around religious values? How do we describe, analyze, and theorize the present moment? What new questions do puppets address for our times, and how does the puppet’s continued entanglement with these concerns trouble or comfort us? The essays in this book, from scholars and practitioners, provide a range of useful models and critical vocabularies for addressing this aspect of puppet performance, further expanding the growing understanding and appreciation of puppetry generally. This book, along with its companion volume, offers, for the first time, robust coverage of this subject from a diversity of voices, examples, and perspectives.

The sensual icon

The sensual icon
Author: Bissera V
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 346
Release:
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0271035846

"Explores the Byzantine aesthetic of fugitive appearances by placing and filming art objects in spaces of changing light, and by uncovering the shifting appearances expressed in poetry, descriptions of art, and liturgical performance"--Provided by publisher.

Wild Words

Wild Words
Author: Nicole Gulotta
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1611806658

A guide for the next generation of writers—self-care rituals, creativity-generating rhythms, and personalized strategies for embracing a creative life Wild Words is an invitation to explore the intersection of your writing practice with everything else in your busy life. Through personal stories and practical lessons you’ll learn how to enter a new relationship with your creativity, one that honors where you’ve been, where you’re headed, and where you are today. Discover methods to support a sustainable writing practice, clarifying and nourishing routines, an understanding of your own creative history, and guidance on how to make small but powerful mind-set shifts (such as how to see a career as a partner rather than an obstacle). Above all, Wild Words encourages you to approach creativity through a seasonal lens and helps you untangle the messy process of embracing your circumstances, trusting your voice, and making time to put pen to paper, season after season.

Ritual Boundaries

Ritual Boundaries
Author: Joseph E. Sanzo
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2024-04-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0520399196

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In Ritual Boundaries, Joseph E. Sanzo transforms our understanding of how early Christians experienced religion in lived practice through the study of magical objects, such as amulets and grimoires. Against the prevailing view of late antiquity as a time when only so-called elites were interested in religious and ritual differentiation, the evidence presented here reveals that the desire to distinguish between religious and ritual insiders and outsiders cut across diverse social strata. The magical evidence also offers unique insight into early biblical reception, exposing a textual world in which scriptural reading was multisensory and multitraditional. As they addressed sickness, demonic struggle, and interpersonal conflicts, Mediterranean people thus acted in ways that challenge our conceptual boundaries between Christians and non-Christians; elites and non-elites; and words, materials, and images. Sanzo helps us rethink how early Christians imagined similarity and difference among texts, traditions, groups, and rituals as they went about their daily lives.

Sensation, the Intuitive System, and Designed Experience

Sensation, the Intuitive System, and Designed Experience
Author: Qing Archer Zhang
Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2023-10-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1957792701

This groundbreaking book redefines human learning by placing sensation and experience at its core. The book delves into the essence of what it means to be human and how humans best learn and flourish. Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology, neuroscience, learning science, and the arts, the authors weave together a rich tapestry of ideas that challenge traditional approaches to education. The authors argue that school and educational research often ignore fundamental aspects of human learning, such as empathy, intuition, and balance. By examining what “experience” really means when we say “humans learn from experience,” the authors propose a more holistic approach to education—much of which goes on outside school—that goes beyond talk, texts, and analytical reasoning. With examples from various media, particularly the wildly popular Japanese anime series Attack on Titan, the authors treat good teaching as experience design and show how experience can be a powerful force for learning and human flourishing. As our world faces unprecedented challenges and crises, this timely book serves as a clarion call for a transformative approach to teaching and learning that respects the nature of humans as distinctive sorts of creatures, urging us to create environments that nurture the full spectrum of human capacities.