Stages of Evil: Occultism in Western Theater and DramaUniversity Press of Kentucky, 2005 M12 23 - 344 pages "The evil that men do" has been chronicled for thousands of years on the European stage, and perhaps nowhere else is human fear of our own evil more detailed than in its personifications in theater. Early writers used theater to communicate human experiences and to display reverence for the gods governing daily life. Playwrights from Euripides onward sought inspiration from this interplay between the worldly and the occult, using human belief in the divine to govern characters' actions within a dramatic arena. The constant adherence to the supernatural, despite changing religious ideologies over the centuries, testifies to a deep and continuing belief in the ability of a higher power to interfere in human life. Stages of Evil is the first book to examine the representation and relationship of evil and the occult from the prehistoric origins of drama through to the present day. Drawing on examples of magic, astronomy, demonology, possession, exorcism, fairies, vampires, witchcraft, hauntings, and voodoo, author Robert Lima explores how theater shaped American and European perceptions of the occult and how the dramatic works studied here reflect society back upon itself at different points in history. From representations of Dionysian rites in ancient Greece, to the Mouth of Hell in the Middle Ages, to the mystical cabalistic life of the Hasidic Jews, to the witchcraft and magic of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, Lima traces the recurrence of supernatural motifs in pivotal plays and performance works of the Western tradition. Considering numerous myths and cultural artifacts, such as the "wild man," he describes the evolution and continual representation of supernatural archetypes on the modern stage. He also discusses the sociohistorical implications of Christian and pagan representations of evil and the theatrical creativity that occultism has engendered. Delving into his own theatrical, literary, folkloric, and travel experiences to enhance his observations, Lima assays the complex world of occultism and examines diverse works of Western theater and drama. A unique and comprehensive bibliography of European and American plays concludes the study and facilitates further research into the realm of the social and literary impact of the occult. |
From inside the book
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... appear to have been nearly synonymous terms as well in sacred scriptures out of antiquity and in the early years of the common era. This equating of the dragon-serpent with the Devil indicates the attempt to eradicate traces of ...
... appear that the earliest extant depictions of the abyss in a Christian text are from a sixth-century Greek manuscript preserved in a ninth-century copy11 (Milosevic, 13). SYMBIOSIS The overlord of the torment and discord in the ...
... appear once the dreaded millennium had passed without incident and doomsayers began to make verbal and pictorial reassessments of the Last Judgment and other eschatological concepts. The date of the ... appears elsewhere on the Continent.
Occultism in Western Theater and Drama Robert Lima. Thereafter, the Mouth of Hell appears elsewhere on the Continent in a variety of written, artistic, and architectonic manifestations (see fig. 4). The transition from classical ...
... appears in the 1437 Metz Passion play: “The gateway and mouth of Hell in this play was very well made, for by a device (engin) it opened and closed of its own accord when the devils wanted to go in or come out of it. And this great head ...
Contents
Touchstone of Celestinas Magic | |
Possession and Exorcism | |
Voodoo Terror in Eugene ONeills | |
Sex as Grimoire in Arthur Millers The Crucible | |
The Politics of Demonic Hysteria in John | |
Malign Decadence in Francisco Nievas | |
Cauldron and Cave | |
Chthonic Sanctuaries in Early | |
Bibliography of European and American Drama of | |
Index | |