Bewitched and Bedeviled: A Cognitive Approach to Embodiment in Early English Possession

274 Pages·2015·6.801 MB·English

by  Kirsten C. Uszkalo (auth.)

BEWITCHED AND BEDEVILED
Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance
Literature, Science, and a New Humanities
Jonathan Gottschall
Engaging Audiences
Bruce McConachie
The Public Intellectualism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and
W.E.B. Du Bois
Ryan Schneider
Performance, Cognitive Theory, and Devotional Culture
Jill Stevenson
Shakespearean Neuroplay
Amy Cook
Evolving Hamlet
Angus Fletcher
Cognition in the Globe
Evelyn B. Tribble
Toward a General Theory of Acting
John Lutterbie
Trusting Performance
Naomi Rokotnitz
Graphing Jane Austen
Joseph Carroll, Jonathan Gottschall, John A. Johnson, and Daniel
J. Kruger
Theatre/Ecology/Cognition
Teemu Paavolainen
A Cognitive Approach to John Donne’ssSongs and Sonnets
Michael A. Winkelman
Bewitched and Bedeviled
Kirsten C. Uszkalo
Bewitched and Bedeviled
A Cognitive Approach to Embodiment
in Early English Possession
Kirsten C. Uszkalo
BEWITCHED AND BEDEVILED
Copyright © Kirsten C. Uszkalo, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-51224-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-70252-7 ISBN 978-1-137-49822-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137498229
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Uszkalo, Kirsten C., 1973– author.
Bewitched and bedeviled : a cognitive approach to embodiment in
early English possession / Kirsten C. Uszkalo.
pages cm. — (Cognitive studies in literature and performance)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Demoniac possession—Pscyhological aspects. 2. Demoniac
possession—England. 3. Cognitive neuroscience. I. Title.
BF1555.U89 2015
133.4(cid:2)260942—dc23 2014047893
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: July 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Xavier Chance, who shows us, always, how extraordinary
the ordinary embodiment of emotion is
they are afraid they are bewitched, possessed, or poisoned by their
enemies, and sometimes they suspect their nearest friends
Robert Burton: A natomy of Melancholyy(1629), 387
That the Brain of this Woman was terribly affected, appears by her
continued Madness, accompanied with want of sleep, boldness,
immodesty and anger, and that her Heart and the rest of her Body
suffered, was plain from her extraordinary heat. This Delirium is
called Madness, and is a continued Commotion of the Mind with
an Enraged Boldness, arising from the heat of the Spirits.
Isbrand de Diemerbroeck:
Anatomy of Human Bodiess(1689), 172

Contents
List of Figuress xi
Series Editors’ Prefacee xiii
Acknowledgmentss xv
Introduction: Grounding Rage Possession 1
Chapter 1
Early Diagnostics 19
Chapter 2
Contemporary Theories 47
Chapter 3
Embodied Spirituality | Embodied Cognition 59
Chapter 4
Performance | Contamination 85
Chapter 5
Reconciliation | Dispossession | Exorcism 133
Conclusion: Reproducing and Representing Demoniacs 169
Notes 177
Bibliographyy 225
Indexx 255