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negotiating with demons: the uses of magical language
Author(s) -
McCREERY JOHN L.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1995.22.1.02a00070
Subject(s) - performative utterance , metaphor , magic (telescope) , exorcism , poetry , negotiation , linguistics , metonymy , literature , aesthetics , literal and figurative language , sociology , art , philosophy , social science , physics , quantum mechanics
How should we read the language of magic? As speech acts with performative force? As dramatic metaphor with special, emotional powers? As poetic form whose syntatic restrictions embody a special authority? Or, better still, as all three? This article examines the language employed in a Taoist exorcism performed in Taiwan and illustrates the need to attend to the multiple uses of language in magical and other performances. [magic, metaphor, performance, performatives, texts, theory]