Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy: An Eccentric History of the Composing ImaginationThis book presents a selective, introductory reading of key texts in the history of magic from antiquity forward, in order to construct a suggestive conceptual framework for disrupting our conventional notions about rhetoric and literacy. Offering an overarching, pointed synthesis of the interpenetration of magic, rhetoric, and literacy, William A. Covino draws from theorists ranging from Plato and Cornelius Agrippa to Paulo Freire and Mary Daly, and analyzes the different magics that operate in Renaissance occult philosophy and Romantic literature, as well as in popular indicators of mass literacy such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and The National Enquirer. Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy distinguishes two kinds of magic-rhetoric that continue to affect our psychological and cultural life today. Generative magic-rhetoric creates novel possibilities for action, within a broad sympathetic universe of signs and symbols. Arresting magic-rhetoric attempts to induce automatistic behavior, by inculcating rules and maxims that function like magic ritual formulas: JUST SAY NO. In this connection, the literate individual is one who can interrogate arresting language, and generate "counter-spells." |
From inside the book
Try this search over all volumes: magic and rhetoric
Results 1-0 of 0
Contents
Magic Rhetoric and Literacy | 11 |
Rhetoric | 16 |
Literacy | 24 |
The Interanimation of Phantasms | 31 |
The History of Phantasy | 32 |
Renaissance Magic of Rhetoric in the Light of Faith | 40 |
Agrippas Occult Philosophy | 46 |
Parcels and Palimpsests | 59 |
Burkes Magic | 91 |
Adorno Against Occultism | 94 |
Marcuses Universe of Discourse | 106 |
Freires Magic Consciousness | 112 |
Grimoires and Witches | 117 |
The National Enquirer | 121 |
Magic Nuggets and Tabloid Epistemology | 130 |
Oprah and the Witches | 140 |
From Magic to Science | 60 |
Natural Language Nationalized | 65 |
Magic and Romanticism | 71 |
De Quinceys Palimpsest | 75 |
Magic Consciousness | 89 |
Notes | 153 |
References | 171 |
Index | 185 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adorno Agrippa appear arresting magic associated astrology becomes behavior belief Burke calls century chapter complex composing imagination cosmology Couliano critical Daly define demons dialectical dialogue discourse emphasis Enquirer epistemology Ernesto Grassi essay Ficino forces formulas Freire Freire's Grammar guage Harper's human ideas images individual intellectual interaction invention invoke J. R. Bob Jane Elliott Joyce Jillson Kenneth Burke knowledge language Lapham literacy magic and rhetoric magic consciousness magic rhetoric magical imagination magical thinking magician magus Marcuse mass culture means memory ment mind mystical nature nonmagical O'Keefe occult Occult Philosophy Omarr Opera Oprah Outercourse palimpsest phantasy Pico political practice Quincey Quincey's Quintilian readers reality Renaissance Renaissance magic rhetoric Romantic Royal Society sense social soul speak speech spell spirit Sprat Starhawk stars Subgenius Suspiria symbolic sympathetic universe tabloids Theuth things thinking Thomas De Quincey thought tion traditional transformative voices Winfrey witch words writing