In Search of the Uncanny: Inspirited Landscapes and Modern Witchcraft
The uncanny is commonly identified as an emotional encounter, where the known somehow slips out of place; it is embodied and sensory, but understood primarily as feelings. Home is safe and familiar, history is considered rational and chronological, and the supernatural is both untrue and to be feare...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2020]
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In: |
Material religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 410-431 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Neopaganism
/ Wicca
/ Landscape
/ The Uncanny
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IxTheo Classification: | AF Geography of religion AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements |
Further subjects: | B
inspirited landscape
B Cornwall B Museum of Witchcraft and Magic B uncanny B modern witchcraft and Wicca |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) |
Summary: | The uncanny is commonly identified as an emotional encounter, where the known somehow slips out of place; it is embodied and sensory, but understood primarily as feelings. Home is safe and familiar, history is considered rational and chronological, and the supernatural is both untrue and to be feared. Yet all these are challenged by modern witches with their view of an inspirited world. Practitioner-visitors to the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall report a wealth of eerie experiences. Situated at the foot of Boscastle harbor, nestled down a steep and winding route, its place in the landscape encourages ready connections to esoteric experiences. This sense is reinforced by a network of sacred sites weaving outwards from the museum, and the well-used occult and folk magic items held in the displays: tangible and material sites of the uncanny. For these visitors, such encounters in the museum hold particular significance. Here, a dynamic landscape, inhabited by genius loci (spirit of place) combines with an inspirited material culture contained inside the museum. In an animated cosmology, the uncanny is encountered through emotional, sensory, and embodied materialities. |
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ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2020.1794578 |