This book brings to the life many magical creatures, wizards, reborn evil, historical and contemporary figures that are combined into a dialogue full of fascinating research findings. In the first section of the volume, you will be introduced to different faces of evil. From a deep map of evil to patient-care institutions, explore the devious side of human nature. The second section takes an artistic approach to evil and magic. With discussions on the works of Tolkien, Rowling, and the demon in Russian literature, evil and magic are explored in an interdisciplinary fashion.
Introduction
Part 1: Knowing Evil
The Study of Evil: A Deep Map
William Andrew Myers
Unsettling Banality: The Unheimlichkeit of Evil
Rosa Slegers
Against Compassion: Understanding Institutional Perfidy as Evil
Wendy Austin
Magic and the Power of the Condemned: English Public Execution and Popular Superstition from 1735 to 1868
Stephen Banks
Part 2: Evil Fictions and Magical Visions,
Fictions and Illusions, Acquiring Magical Power: Magicians, Witches, Vanishing Women and Demons
George L. Hersh
Faerie Communion: Magical Cure in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Merve Sarı
Cinema and the Magical Erasure of the Woman: ‘How do you make a Woman Disappear?’
Viv Chadder
‘A symbol of our times, neither light nor day, neither dark nor light’: Sympathy for the Demon in Russian
Literature and Art
Natalia Kaloh Vid
The Evil Queens of The Faerie Queene
Hande Seber
Notes on Contributors
Nadine Farhaly M.A., Mag. Phil., is at the University of Salzburg. While her background is in American literature, Nadine’s research interests embrace various popular culture themes like vampires, fairy tales and science fiction.
Gabriela Mádlo is an independent scholar, who studied at the Charles University in Prague and at the South Bohemian University Ceské Budejovice. Her research focuses on subjects in folklore, film and cultural studies primarily in Czech comedies and New Wave cinema as well as witchcraft and the witch-hunt represented in film and literature.