Naming the Witch - (Gender, Theory, and Religion) by Kimberly Stratton (Hardcover)

About the Book

Kimberly B. Stratton presents an innovative approach to understanding ancient depictions and accusations of magic as forms of discourse, examining their role in struggles to define legitimate power and authority. She traces "magic discourse" from Classical Greece to the Babylonian Talmud, illuminating powerful stereotypes of sorcery and witches.

Book Synopsis

Kimberly B. Stratton investigates the cultural and ideological motivations behind early imaginings of the magician, the sorceress, and the witch in the ancient world. Accusations of magic could carry the death penalty or, at the very least, marginalize the person or group they targeted. But Stratton moves beyond the popular view of these accusations as mere slander. In her view, representations and accusations of sorcery mirror the complex struggle of ancient societies to define authority, legitimacy, and Otherness.

Stratton argues that the concept "magic" first emerged as a discourse in ancient Athens where it operated part and parcel of the struggle to define Greek identity in opposition to the uncivilized "barbarian" following the Persian Wars. The idea of magic then spread throughout the Hellenized world and Rome, reflecting and adapting to political forces, values, and social concerns in each society. Stratton considers the portrayal of witches and magicians in the literature of four related periods and cultures: classical Athens, early imperial Rome, pre-Constantine Christianity, and rabbinic Judaism. She compares patterns in their representations of magic and analyzes the relationship between these stereotypes and the social factors that shaped them.

Stratton's comparative approach illuminates the degree to which magic was (and still is) a cultural construct that depended upon and reflected particular social contexts. Unlike most previous studies of magic, which treated the classical world separately from antique Judaism, Naming the Witch highlights the degree to which these ancient cultures shared ideas about power and legitimate authority, even while constructing and deploying those ideas in different ways. The book also interrogates the common association of women with magic, denaturalizing the gendered stereotype in the process. Drawing on Michel Foucault's notion of discourse as well as the work of other contemporary theorists, such as Homi K. Bhabha and Bruce Lincoln, Stratton's bewitching study presents a more nuanced, ideologically sensitive approach to understanding the witch in Western history.

Review Quotes

Naming the Witch is a well argued, well constructed book that can be highly recommended.--Patrick Maille "Bryn Mawr Classical Review"

A scrupulous and highly innovative study of the phenomenon of "magic" in the ancient world... A significant contribution to the discussion... Recommendable to all readers.--Thomas J. Kraus "Review of Biblical Literature"

Stratton's analysis thus sheds light not only upon the ancient world but also upon a present in which the discourse of magic retains its currency in popular culture and religious rhetoric. . . . A most enlightening volume which will no doubt stimulate scholarly and popular conversation for many years to come.-- "Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses"

This is one of the most stimulating and intelligent of many studies of ancient magic in recent scholarship...--Ian H. Henderson "Toronto Journal of Theology"

Wide-ranging and engaging. . . . This book furthers our understanding of the discourse of magic in antiquity.-- "Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period"

About the Author

Kimberly B. Stratton is an associate professor in the College of Humanities at Carleton University. She is coeditor of Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in Antiquity (2014) and Crossing Boundaries in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: Ambiguities, Complexities, and Half-Forgotten Adversaries (2016).