This module is an introduction to the history and development of ideas about magic and witchcraft, primarily in Western culture. It will also consider relevant comparative material in other cultures and examine the idea of the ‘occult’  and ‘witchcraft’ with an emphasis on nineteenth century revivals, new developments in contemporary paganism, and the increased use of these concepts in popular culture. A renewed interest in magic and the occult is reflected in films, literature, art and lifestyle choices in today’s world. This module traces the history and development of these ideas and examines how our response to the idea of magic has shaped attitudes to witchcraft and the occult from the classical period to the present.

Knowledge and Understanding:

• Demonstrate an understanding of a range of different aspects of the history and development of ideas about magic and witchcraft.
• Demonstrate an ability to gather, assimilate and interpret the ways in which ideas about magic, witchcraft and the occult have shaped contemporary culture.
• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the major features of the western magical tradition, its origins and some important figures in its development.

Intellectual Skills:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the kinds of evidence which may be drawn from history, folklore and culture.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of belief systems and the way they influence culture.
• Initiate, undertake and articulate analysis of information drawn from a wide variety of sources.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

•  Identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and or peculiarities with alternative historical interpretations of belief systems.

• Initiate, undertake and articulate a basic analysis of historical information.
• Deepen understanding of the broad themes and developments considered in the course through the analysis of a historical source or sources.
• To research, plan and structure essays and/or projects.
• To recognise, evaluate and interpret different types of evidence.
• To develop, at a basic level, subject-specific and critically-discerning information literacy skills.

This module is taught in 10, two-hour sessions, delivered on a weekly basis. These sessions will consist of a 1-hour lecture followed by class discussion and group work on specific topics relating to the module. The discussion and group work will enable the students to think critically and contribute to the debates and topics presented during the lectures. The discussion-led sessions and the lectures will be supplemented by resources available to the students via Learning Central.

Academic Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will have:

• found relevant resources in the library and online;
• assessed the reliability of different sources of information;
• demonstrated a critical approach to academic texts.

Transferable/employability Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will have shown that he/she can:

• work effectively as part of a group;

• present an argument, accurately, succinctly and lucidly, and in written or oral form.
• time manage and organise study methods and workload;
• gather, organise and deploy evidence, data and information; and familiarity with appropriate means of identifying, finding, retrieving, sorting and exchanging information.

Short written exercises, 40%,  500 words.   Weekly for Weeks 1–5.

Essay    60%,  c.1000 words.   Set in Week 4/5 and submitted at the end of course

Week 1: Magic, witchcraft and the occult: Introduction

This session defines the terms and concepts which will be important for the material covered in this course. It will present an historical outline of these ideas and the role of folklore has played on their origins.

Week 2: Precursors Evidence from archaeology, art, literature and folklore. This session presents a survey of narratives and images which foreshadow later themes used in gothic writing, for example, attitudes to apparitions, disease, deviance etc.

Week 3: The Witch Figure examines the development of ideas about witches, both male and female, from the classical world to modern wicca.

Week 4: Classical perspectives: Magic practitioners among Greeks, Romans and Barbarians. A comparative examination of themes in classical myths and literature which involve witches and magicians and the way the classical world perceived magic in the cultures with which it came into contact especially the so-called Celtic and Germanic tribes of Europe.

Week 5: The Magician, His Kith and Kin

This session is a case study of one of the most popular and influential figures, the magician, and it will focus particularly on the figures of Dr John Dee, Merlin and Gandalf.

Week 6: Medieval magic This session will consider the nature of popular magic in the Middle Ages and the increasingly negative attitude to it which resulted in the criminalization of witchcraft.

Week 7: The Occult Revival This session will examine some of the important figures, such as |Madame Blavatsky. A.E. Waite and Aleister Crowley. in the revival of magic and occult from the nineteenth century to the present.

Week 8: Modern Pagans The most significant modern revival of magic is undoubtedly contemporary paganism and this session will look at some of the strands of the complex phenomenon and its links with popular culture

Week 9: Fantasy Magic This session will give us an opportunity to consider the use  of the occult in modern culture, with an emphasis on fantasy art and fiction.

Week 10: Library Session will provide an opportunity to examine and discuss some of the material in Cardiff University’s special collections.

Selections from literary works, TV and film will be provided during the course on Learning Central and in Senghennydd Library.

Essential texts

Andrew Joynes, Medieval ghost Stories: an Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies (Woodbridge, 2001)

Joanne Pearson, Nature religion today: paganism in the modern world (Edinburgh 1998)

T.A.Waters, An Encyclopaedia of Magic and Magicians, (Oxford, 1988)

Recommended texts

Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: the idea of Witchcraft in Early modern Europe (Oxford 1997)

David Cressy, Agnes Bowker’s Cat: Travesties and Transgression in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford 2001)

Owen Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture 1736-1951 (Manchester 1999)

Owen Davies, Grimoires: a history of magic books (Oxford 2009)

Owen Davies, Cunning-folk, popular magic in English history (London 2003)

Graham Harvey Listening people, speaking earth: contemporary pagans (London 1997)

R. Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, (Oxford, 2000)

Robert W Thurston, Witch, Wicce, Mother goose: the rise and fall of witch hunts in Europe and north America (London 2001)

Eric Gerald Stanley, The search for Anglo-Saxon paganism (Cambridge 1975)