
Magical Criticism
The Recourse of Savage Philosophy
Christopher Bracken(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 15. August 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-226-06991-3 (ISBN)
Description
During the Enlightenment, Western scholars racialized ideas, deeming knowledge based on reality superior to that based on ideality. Scholars labeled inquiries into ideality, such as animism and soul migration, "savage philosophy," a clear indicator of the racism motivating the distinction between the real and the ideal. In their view, savage philosophers mistake connections between signs for connections between real objects and believe that discourse can have physical effects - in other words, they believe in magic. Christopher Bracken's "Magical Criticism" brings the unacknowledged history of this racialization to light and shows how, even as we have rejected ethnocentric notions of "the savage," they remain active today in everything from attacks on postmodernism to Native American land disputes. Here Bracken reveals that many of the most influential Western thinkers dabbled in savage philosophy, from Marx, Nietzsche, and Proust to Freud, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Walter Benjamin.
For Bracken, this recourse to savage philosophy presents an opportunity to reclaim a magical criticism that can explain the very real effects created by the discourse of historians, anthropologists, philosophers, the media, and governments.
For Bracken, this recourse to savage philosophy presents an opportunity to reclaim a magical criticism that can explain the very real effects created by the discourse of historians, anthropologists, philosophers, the media, and governments.
Reviews / Votes
"Bracken argues that, despite our denial, savage philosophy is very much with us today, and in an extraordinary whirl through many of today's canonized thinkers, he uncovers and explicates its strands. The depth and breadth of his purview are quite extraordinary: this book will appeal to scholars of literary criticism, anthropology, philosophy, and intellectual history. I was enchanted by it." - Vincent Crapanzano, author of Imaginative Horizons"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 23 mm
Width: 15 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
397 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-06991-3 (9780226069913)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2008
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
€40.49
Available for download
Person
Christopher Bracken is associate professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. He is the author of The Potlatch Papers: A Colonial Case History, also published by the University of Chicago Press.