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Wicked - The Untold History of Magical Scholarship (2025/2026: Semester 2 – Spring)
Cursusdoel
After completing the course students are able to:
- Students can put the prominence of Renaissance magic, as well as other sciences most educated people no longer believe in, in intellectual and cultural historical context.
- Students can read and interpret historical sources, ranging from Ficino’s On Life to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, that discuss obscure subjects such as alchemy, magic, and witchcraft.
- Students can disentangle the meanings of ‘magic’, as it was used in different historical periods, by different people from the same period, and by later historians.
- Students can critically reflect on the seemingly self-evident categories we use to make sense of our lives and the world we live in.
Relationship between tests and course goals:
All assessment methods assess all of the learning goals. The emphasis differs, however.
Participation: mostly goals 2 and 4.
Oral presentations: mostly goals 1 and 3.
Essay: mostly goals 1 and 2.
Midterm exam: mostly goals 1 and 3.
Vakinhoudelijk
Title change in spring 2024; content remains the same
‘Magic’ is a key element of today’s popular culture, despite its history of repression and marginalization. The cultural history of magical scholarship is one that takes place in the margins, questioning and questioned by orthodox systems of belief and knowledge. By placing magic central to our story, we move as it were into a different paradigm. We encounter a different worldview than that of, say, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Voltaire, and Adam Smith – those Enlightened minds after whom buildings, institutions, and prizes are named. Some of the figures that feature in our story – monks, magi, and witches – lived hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Because of the unfamiliarity of these people and their way of thinking, this course deals with material that is challenging to comprehend: the historical sources are obscure and recondite. Yet the effort of close reading is rewarded, for it shows us different ways of being in the world.
‘Magic’ is a key element of today’s popular culture, despite its history of repression and marginalization. The cultural history of magical scholarship is one that takes place in the margins, questioning and questioned by orthodox systems of belief and knowledge. By placing magic central to our story, we move as it were into a different paradigm. We encounter a different worldview than that of, say, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Voltaire, and Adam Smith – those Enlightened minds after whom buildings, institutions, and prizes are named. Some of the figures that feature in our story – monks, magi, and witches – lived hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Because of the unfamiliarity of these people and their way of thinking, this course deals with material that is challenging to comprehend: the historical sources are obscure and recondite. Yet the effort of close reading is rewarded, for it shows us different ways of being in the world.
Format
The course runs for fifteen weeks; there are two two-hour sessions per week. The instructor will give an introductory lecture highlighting central themes in the first session of the week. The second session in the week is for oral presentations and discussion of the source text. For each session the students are required to do the required reading and prepare the guiding questions (available on blackboard). Halfway the course there is an in-class, mid-term exam which will test the general knowledge of the student. The second half of the course focusses increasingly on individual research for the final essay. Students will be guided during the process, with both written feedback on essay proposals and drafts and individual consultation sessions. The course is rounded off with a round-table discussion linking the history of magic to magic in contemporary culture.
The course runs for fifteen weeks; there are two two-hour sessions per week. The instructor will give an introductory lecture highlighting central themes in the first session of the week. The second session in the week is for oral presentations and discussion of the source text. For each session the students are required to do the required reading and prepare the guiding questions (available on blackboard). Halfway the course there is an in-class, mid-term exam which will test the general knowledge of the student. The second half of the course focusses increasingly on individual research for the final essay. Students will be guided during the process, with both written feedback on essay proposals and drafts and individual consultation sessions. The course is rounded off with a round-table discussion linking the history of magic to magic in contemporary culture.
Werkvormen
UCU hum 2 course
Toetsing
General Participation
Verplicht | Weging 10% | ECTS 0,75
Essay
Verplicht | Weging 40% | ECTS 3
Oral presentations
Verplicht | Weging 20% | ECTS 1,5
*midterm FEEDBACK*
Niet verplicht
Midterm exam
Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25
Ingangseisen en voorkennis
Ingangseisen
Je moet minimaal 60 punten van het bachelor programma hebben behaald
Voorkennis
Er is geen informatie over benodigde voorkennis bekend.
Voertalen
- Engels
Cursusmomenten
Gerelateerde studies
Tentamens
Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus
Verplicht materiaal
-
BOEKB. Copenhaver (ed. and trans.), The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment (Milton Keynes 2016). ISBN: 978-0-141-39314-8
Aanbevolen materiaal
Er is geen informatie over de aanbevolen literatuur bekend
Coördinator
| dr. F.D.A. Wegener | F.D.A.Wegener@uu.nl |
Docenten
| dr. F.D.A. Wegener | F.D.A.Wegener@uu.nl |
Inschrijving
Let op: deze cursus is niet toegankelijk voor studenten van andere faculteiten, bijvakkers mogen zich dus niet inschrijven.
Naar OSIRIS-inschrijvingen
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