Echo and the Historiola: Theorizing the Narrative Incantation

Narrative incantations known as historiolae appear frequently in many magical traditions, but scholarship on the subject is sparse, and current descriptions of the historiola’s mechanism are inadequate. This study addresses this lacuna. It examines and synthesizes the existing scholarly literature a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archiv für Religionsgeschichte
Main Author: Waller, Daniel James (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: De Gruyter 2015
In: Archiv für Religionsgeschichte
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Invocation / Historiola
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Narrative incantations known as historiolae appear frequently in many magical traditions, but scholarship on the subject is sparse, and current descriptions of the historiola’s mechanism are inadequate. This study addresses this lacuna. It examines and synthesizes the existing scholarly literature and develops a theory of echo in relation to the historiola. It explores two unusual ‘transubstantiative’ historiolae that demonstrate the value of this theory. The concept of echo advanced by this study not only expands upon our current understanding of the historiola but-together with the two case-studies-allows for several conceptual, formal, and pragmatic distinctions to be made within the primary literature.
ISSN:1868-8888
Contains:In: Archiv für Religionsgeschichte
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/arege-2014-0015