Social history of magic

2023/2024

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of History

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 4 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course will examine the social history of magic in the broad context of world history. Attention will be focused on social aspects relevant to different regions in the history of magic and witchcraft. For their study, the main concepts in the course will be gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. With the rise of rationalism and secular tendencies, it is these aspects of identity that have become key to accusations of witchcraft/witchcraft. We will therefore consider how the witch trials changed gender relations in European society; how the perception of non-Europeans was conditioned by rationalizing thinking; how magic became a legal legal argument for discrimination against particular groups; how witches and witches themselves dealt with the new reality in different regions of the world; and in what contexts the social rehabilitation of witches took place in modern times. The course will focus on the history of these transformations, which are not really confined to the realm of magic, witchcraft, and the occult, but which have been totally penetrating and changing social relations, legal concepts, ways of seeing justice, and power structures. Much of the course is a seminar class, and virtually all of the literature for the class is in English. Both Russian and English language skills are required for the course.