Mad Enchantment

This chapter discusses the vicissitudes of creative madness, enthusiasm, and inspiration in the eighteenth century, in relation to writing by Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, who...

Until the Atlantic revolutions, the monarch’s body had served as the site of sovereign power and the substantial symbol of society. After losing this ground of unity, writes Claude...

The icon is not just a certain kind of religious image developed during the early Byzantine empire and still used today in Orthodox Christianity. The chapter defines a broader cate...

This chapter considers the deep-rooted association of glamour with magic powers. Glamour’s bestowal of mystique on objects, people, and emotions depends on a more fundamental goal ...