Magical Agency: Prayers, Ritual, Prophecy, and Prognostication

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Early Book Society

Organizer Name

Martha W. Driver

Organizer Affiliation

Pace Univ.

Presider Name

Graham Douglas Caie

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Glasgow

Paper Title 1

"It Wylle Not Be": Prophecy and Powerlessness in the Vita Merlini and Morte Darthur

Presenter 1 Name

Jason Escandell

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Texas-Austin

Paper Title 2

Sacramental Perversion: Baptism in a Sorcery Trial in Fourteenth-Century Languedoc

Presenter 2 Name

Jan K. Bulman

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Auburn Univ.-Montgomery

Paper Title 3

Predicting the Life of the Text in Gower's Confessio amantis

Presenter 3 Name

Steven Hackbarth

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Wisconsin Lutheran College

Paper Title 4

Magic as Orthodoxy in the English Birth Girdle Tradition

Presenter 4 Name

Mary Morse

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Rider Univ.

Start Date

15-5-2015 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1320

Description

Magical Agency, a term borrowed from Jesper Sørensen, explores the boundaries between religious, secular and magical texts which may prognosticate or self-reflexively contemplate the future, either of reality or of the fictional narrative. The session considers the malleable boundaries between incantation and prayer, magical healing, prophetic texts, charms and indulgences, fictions and histories.

Martha W. Driver