overemphasis on magic

[Cezary Galewicz]

> Date sent:      Thu, 30 May 1996 18:38:12 BST
> Send reply to:  indology at liverpool.ac.uk
> From:           thompson at handel.jlc.net (George Thompson)
> To:             Members of the list <indology at liverpool.ac.uk>
> Subject:        Re: overemphasis on magic

  On May 30 George Thompson wrote :  
> 
> As for the term "magical grammar", it is Elizarenkova's.  But she does not
> give an elaborate defense of it, nor can her book [devoted to poetics] be
> used as a starting point for critical reflections re magic.  However, her
> view is, as far as I can see, entirely consistent with the one set forth in
> Tambiah's book [again, cf. his reference to Burke's definition of magic as
> "primitive rhetoric"].

  If the discussion is not closed yet: a short comment:  
   In the light of the suggestion that magic [weltanschaung] seems 
  to play a crucial   role in Vedic world-view especially through its 
  relation to rhetorics or poetics I should like to  recall
  Paul Thieme's review of L.Renou's EVP I in JAOS 1956(?), where  
  he already called the phenomenon "magical poetics"   (or was it 
  "poetical  magic" ?- sorry, if my memory   fails me).   

  best regards
  Cezary Galewicz
  Institute of Oriental Philology
  UJ, Krakow