Monday, October 18, 2021

 THE SYMBOLIC CONSTRUCTIONOF THE MONSTROUS – THE ELIZABETH BATHORY STORY 



This article analyzes several kinds of monsters in western popular culture today: werewolves, vampires, morlaks, the blood-countess and other creatures of the underworld. By utilizing the notion of the monstrous, it seeks to return to the most fundamental misconception of ethnocentrism: the prevailing nodes of western superiority in which tropes seem to satisfy curiosities and fantasies of citizens who should know better but in fact they do not. The monstrous became staples in western popular cultural production and not only there if we take into account the extremely fashionable Japanese and Chinese vampire and werewolf fantasy genre as well. In the history of East European monstrosities, the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory has a prominent place. Proclaimed to be the most prolific murderess of mankind, she is accused of torturing young virgins, tearing the flesh from their living bodies with her teeth and bathing in their blood in her quest for eternal youth. The rise and popularity of the Blood Countess (Blutgräfin), one of the most famous of all historical vampires, is described in detail. In the concluding section, examples are provided how biology also uses vampirism and the monstrous in taxonomy and classification. 

Key words: scholarship; monstrosity; vampirism; blood-countess; Elizabeth Bathory  



Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 133-159, 
L. Kürti, The Symbolic Construction of the Monstruous…
Original scientific paper Received: 2nd Jan. 2009 Accepted: 15th Feb. 2009UDK 392.28:291.13]
133
LÁSZLÓ KÜRTIUniversity of Miskolc, Miskolc



The Proliferating Undead (Review Essay)

Jeffrey Weinstock

Review Essay:The Proliferating Undead
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock 
 Vol. 19, No. 3,
 Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
Copyright © 2008, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.
 
 Abbott, Stacey.
Celluloid Vampires: Life After Death in the Modern World.
 Austin:University of Texas Press, 2007. 266 pp. Soft cover. ISBN 9780292716964.$24.95.Bak, John S., ed.

Post/Modern Dracula: From Victorian Themes to PostmodernPraxis.
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007. 162 pp. Hardcover.ISBN 9781847182005. $49.99.Keyworth, David.

Troublesome Corpses: Vampires & Revenants from Antiquity to the Present.
Essex: Desert Island Books Limited, 2007. 320 pp. ISBN9781905328307. £30.McClelland, Bruce A.

Slayers and Their Vampires: ACultural History of Killing the Dead.
 Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. 260 pp. Softcover. ISBN 9780472069231. $19.95.

As Stephen D. Arata observes in his seminal essay on Dracula , “The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization,” what marks the vampire in Stoker’s vampire ur-text is his monstrous  fecundity.

What Dracula does and aspires to do (much to the dismay of Stoker’s “Crew of Light,” to borrow from Christopher Craft) is to procreate, to create more vampires—a premise that has been elaborated upon to the point of absurdity in twentieth- and twenty-first century vampire fiction and film (if everyone is a vampire, what's left to eat?). A hallmark of the vampire tradition in fiction and cinema is thus the anxiety of the living over the potential proliferation of the undead. But vampires seem to breed more vampires wherever they go.


Blood Spirits: A Jungian Approach to the Vampire Myth

Catriona Miller

282 Pages
1 File ▾
Vampire Studies,
Vampires in Film and Literature,
Vampires in folklore,
Jungian Analytical Psychology
PhD Thesis on the vampire myth in history and the media.


Possibly Oriental elements in Slavonic folklore. Upiór ~ wampir

Kamil Stachowski
Olaf Stachowski
2017, M. Németh, B. Podolak and M. Urban (ed.). Essays in the history of languages and linguistics. Dedicated to Marek Stachowski on the occasion of his 60th birthday
58 Pages
1 File ▾
Mythology And Folklore,
Folklore,
Ethnography,
Etymology,
Demonology
 ...more ▾
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The two creatures in the title have attracted the attention of ethnographers and etymologists alike for more than a century now, resulting in several theories, more than twenty etymologies, and no consensus. The present paper evaluates these proposals and adds to them yet another one. It also presents linguistic and extra-linguistic data that strengthens some of them and weakens others. The proposal favoured by the authors is presented in more detail, and with new supporting evidence.

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HERESIOLOGY

Persecution of Cathars, Albigenses and Waldenses

Michael D Magee



17 Pages
1 File ▾
Religious Persecution,
Cathars,
Heretics,
Christian Heretics, From Valentinus to the Cathars.,
Medieval Heretics
Four Church Councils in 1119, 1139, 1148 and 1163 declared the Cathars to be heretics. The Council of Toulouse in 1119 and then the Lateran Council of 1139 urged the secular powers to proceed violently against heresy—they did not. Even so, Cathars were burned or imprisoned in many places, but, William IX of Aquitaine and many of the nobles of the Midi continued to protect them. They valued their industry and integrity in a corrupt world. The French bishops at the Council of Tours (1163) discussed the presence of Cathars in Cologne, Bonn and Liege. They called them Manichæans, a taunt, for they knew they were not, and the Cathars called themselves the Good Christians. From 1180 to 1230, the Catholic Church enacted legislation against heresy, and set up a permanent tribunal, staffed by Dominican friars. It was the Inquisition.



Heresy and the Free Spirit: Beghards and Béguines

Michael D Magee

28 Pages
1 File ▾
Heresy and Inquisition,
Heresy of the Free Spirit,
Lollards,
Beguines and Beghards,
Georgi Vasilev
In northern Europe, the Free Spirit of Beghards and Béguines led the war against the established Church. From around 1250, they cited Cathars, Waldenses, and Joachites. Their common beliefs included hatred of the Church, that sacraments are worthless, the spiritual value of poverty, and most important of all, that each of us can become God. Organized in small groups, they faded away when trouble threatened, “migrating from mountain to mountain like strange sparrows”, a good description of the lifestyle the fleeing Cathars were obliged to follow. If they differed, they were merely variations on the Cathar original.



Catharism as a Counter Church

Michel Gybels

13 Pages
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From a sociological point of view, Catharism is perceived as a protest movement, which attacked the established values and habits defended by the Roman Catholic Church and worldly power. In conformity with this approach, it is necessary to pay special attention to the explicit values of Catharism, which are contrary to Roman Catholicism. For instance, the rejection of marriage, the outright prohibition on killing living beings, the rejection of the crucifix and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the ban on swearing oaths, the Eucharist, baptism by water and the belief in God as creator of the material world.


New light on the dissident "Church of the Latins" in Constantinople (Crossroads of Bogomils and Cathars I)

Dick van Niekerk
281 Views23 Pages
1 File ▾
Medieval Church History
The almost forgotten church of the Cathars in Constantinople, also called Church of the Latins, had many similarities with the Greek Church of the Bogomils in Constantinople. Both churches played an important, nevertheless distinguishing, role in the distribution of dualistic ideas in the West.


The cathar version of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat (Crossroads of bogomils and cathars II)

Dick van Niekerk
14 Pages
1 File ▾
Late medieval popular religion, heterodoxy and heresy, memory in the later Middle Ages.
There are at least three close and irrefutable connections between the Bogomils and Cathars. The Cathars adopted the creation myth, The Secret Supper or Interrogatio Johannis, of the Bogomils. It is also proven that the Cathars adopted the federal organization structure of the Bogomil churches during the Council of Saint Félix and Lauragais in 1167, as recommended by the Bogomil bishop Nicetas. The third element of the intimate relationship between Bogomils and Cathars is the initiation ritual of the latter, the consolamentum (or teleiosis), which is rather identical with that of the Bogomils. There are even more connections. In this article we will focus on the Occitan version of the famous medieval legend of " Barlaam and Josaphat " as the binding element between Bogomilism and Catharism. What is it that makes the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat interesting as a binding element between Bogomils and Cathars, even though there is no known Bogomil version? We are especially indebted to Marie Madeleine van Ruymbeke Stey for an answer. In her little known dissertation 1 she aims to prove that the Occitan version of our legend has Cathar roots. One of the things she states is that there is a remarkable spatiotemporal parallel between the history of the spread of the legend on the one hand, and of dualism 2 on the other. This goes alongside current Christianity: Manichaeism, Paulicianism, Bogomilism and Catharism. According to Van Ruymbeke, the legend has been a vehicle, an allegorical tool, for the spread of dualism from east to west, from the third to the fourteenth century. 1 M.M.A. van Ruymbeke Stey, Au confluent du catharisme et du bogomilisme, le Barlam et Jozaphas occitan. Approche culturelle et sémiologique, Ohio 1997 dissertation. 2 Dualism as a concept has only been in existence for two centuries and it can be applied to almost all gnostic systems. There are two completely separate worlds: the divine world created by God and this world, being the world of Satan and the world of evil. These worlds are often designated as the realm of light and the realm of darkness. Analogically, the human being is also of dual nature. He is matter, but there is also a divine principle in him which reminds him of his divine origin and, when his consciousness rises, guides him back to his divine source.

Bogomils on Via Egnatia and in the Valley of Pelagonia: the Geography of a Dualist Belief

Robert Mihajlovski

19 Pages
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This paper treads my long-term field research on the dualist religious movement called Bogomilism that is located along the ancient Roman communication of Via Egnatia and in the valley of Pelagonia. I discuss various written historical sources and topography in the region of Western Macedonia where Bogomilism had its strongholds. In addition, I also deal with some of the neglected monuments and remnants of the Bogomilism in the region. There are two ways in promoting this complex research: theoretical and topographical analysis of the Bogomil faith within the context of place and time. Here I also include archaeological, ethnographical and theological investigation of the religious group labeled as Bogomil.



BOGOMILS AND THE REFORMATION: crossroads and missing links

Dick van Niekerk

11 Pages
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abstract: The year 2017 marked the 500 th anniversary of the Reformation, and it has been celebrated throughout Europe. In this paper, the author aims to examine the connection between beliefs of the Bogomils and the ideas of the Reformation. Controversially, the former have been called " the precursors of the Reformation " and even " the first Protestants in Europe. " These claims will be investigated here in the light of the subject of free will and the so called bogomilian dualism. Both the similarities and differences between Bogomil thinking and the ideas of significant reformers, such as John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and Martin Luther, will be discussed. Based on textual sources, it is argued that there are shared beliefs between Bogomils and reformers, and that both have a strong will to reform the religious life, but we cannot say that there is clear evidence that ideas of the Reformation have been adopted directly from these early dissidents. We can conclude, however, that Bogomil ideas served as an eye-opener for protestant thinkers, though beliefs about free will changed throughout history. Whereas Bogomils believed in the free will of their Perfects, Pico della Mirandola, being inspired by the Gnostic tradition, adopted this, together with Humanists such as Erasmus, and early reformers of the Church, like Wycliffe and Hus. However, the instigator of the Reformation, Luther, changed his mind radically, and rejected the idea of a free will for human beings altogether in favor of the grace



The Question of Neobogomilism

Nemanja Radulovic
2014, Пути гнозиса: мистико-эзотерические традиции и гностичское мировоззрение од древности до наших дней/Ways of Gnosis. Mystical and Esoteric Traditions and Gnostic Worldview from Antiquity to the Present TIme


14 Pages
1 File 



https://w

ww.academia.edu/9844763/The_Question_of_Neobogomilism 








The Bogomils: Mediaeval Gnostics or crypto-Heretics?

Dick van Niekerk

10 Pages
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Medieval Church History
The alleged hypocrisy of the Balkan Bogomils often earned them the scorn of their contemporary orthodox critics. The Bogomils completely rejected the Orthodox Church, yet attended their services. They even allowed the sacraments to be administered to them. The author shows that this phenomenon of “crypto-heresy” can only be satisfactorily explained if we assign the Bogomils a place in the age-long gnostic tradition. The Bogomils exemplified a mediaeval variant of Gnosticism. Their crypto-heresy was a consciously chosen strategy, also common in other gnostic groups.

https://www.academia.edu/19768881/The_Bogomils_Mediaeval_Gnostics_or_crypto_Heretics

The history of Manicheism

Michel Gybels
613 Views9 Pages
1 File ▾
When examining Catharism and related medieval heresies, we oftentimes encounter the claim that these religious dissidents are connected with ancient Manichaeism and that the Cathars and their coreligionists were adherents of Mani. This claim was predominantly put forward in the polemist writings of the opponents of Catharism and related movements, such as Durand of Huesca in his Liber contra manicheos (1223) and numerous inquisitors, including Bernard Gui, who fully dedicates the first chapter of his Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis (1323) to “ the errors of the Manichaeans of this age”.

Why Bosnian Church did not belong to Bogomilism; "Kr'stjani" (mystics) vs "Bogomili" (dualists)

Amer Dardağan
Published 2019
18 Pages
1 File ▾
Gnosticism,
New Testament,
Christian Mysticism,
Mysticism,
Manichaeism
 ...more ▾
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This paper in a simple and transparent way critically examines the rejected belief in science that Bosnian Church and its followers doctrinally and organisationally belonged to the dualist sect of Bogomilism. The research was carried out by a comparative analysis of the basic dualistic postulates of Gnosticism, Manichaeism and Bogomilism on the one hand and the available domestic sources of the Bosnian Church on the other. The importance of the work is reflected in the concise and detailed scientific argumentation that undermines "Bogomil Bosnian Church" myth, while offering a new scientific thesis on the religious and doctrinological affiliation of the "Bosnian faith" and the Bosnian "krs'tjani". In the first part, the paper deals with the problem of extreme and moderate dualism, with a special emphasis on the Neognostic, Neomanichaean and Bogomil communities in medieval Balkans. In the second part, the basic premises of Christian mysticism are given, including the possibility of its philosophical and theological compatibility with the teachings of the Bosnian Church, where for the first time the phenomenon of the name "kr'stjani" is explained in relation to the mystical union ("unio mystica").

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JUNG AND THE MONOTHEISMS; JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

 



PDF  https://www.academia.edu/1925046/SUFI_PSYCHOLOGY

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THE DARK SIDE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY

 


PDF https://www.academia.edu/28203979/Ellerbe_The_Dark_Side_of_Christian_History_1995_pdf


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