Im Oktober hat das kritisch wissenschaftliche Centre for Inquiry in London ein Symposium zum Thema Vampire, Werwölfe und Hexen veranstaltet. Es ging um den Mythos, den realen Hintergrund und die moderne Darstellung dieser Kreaturen.
Im Detail:
Jessica Monteith on Vampires. The Modern Vampire: Suave and Debonair as we’ve never seen him before. Vampire in film and television have evolved from the undead, pestilence ridden revenants of the medieval and renaissance eras, into handsome playboy figures. Why has there been such a drastic re-interpretation of the vampire, and what does it say about the twenty-first century audience that this new ‘modern’ vampire has permeated popular culture?
Deborah Hyde on Werewolves. The werewolf is a common horror motif, but what did people during the witch-hunt of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe really mean when they accused someone of ‘lycanthropy’? A discussion including films, history and analysis, during which we will found out who is worse – man or beast. Deborah writes, lectures internationally and appears on broadcast media to discuss superstition, religion and belief in the supernatural. She is currently writing a book ‘Unnatural Predators’.
Owen Davies on Witches. The persecution of witches in Europe and America – after the witch trials. Professor Owen Davies, University of Hertfordshire, has written widely on the social history of witchcraft, magic, ghosts, and popular medicine. In this talk he will explore why and how thousands of people, mostly women, were abused and murdered as witches in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Die British Humanist Association hat Videos aller drei Vorträge sowie des anschließenden Q&A Panels mit den Rednern online gestellt. Sehr interessant.
Saturnus Philosophorum 