Magical Thought
Magical beings and characters often appear in literature, folktales and myths. Esu-Elegbara and the Trickster in Yoruba tradition seem to travel along a network connecting Nigeria, Benin, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and New Orleans. Scholars who work on these issues have tried to apply multiple epistemologies. The list of investigators includes writers, literary critics, philosophers, anthropologists and psychologists, among others– each defined by a specific cultural make-up. What kind of conceptual problems arise when rational models are used to analyze magical thought and myths? We invite papers negotiating the categories of Otherness and Alterity at work in the concept, specifically the implications of “magical thought” for defining “our own knowledge” and our “own culture.”