Lackenby, Nicholas;
(2023)
A technology of re-enchantment: reading, referencing, and redistributing Orthodox ‘spiritual literature’ in post-Yugoslav Serbia.
Religion
, 54
pp. 126-142.
10.1080/0048721x.2023.2277020.
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Abstract
This article explores the issue of ‘re-enchantment’ through an ethnographic analysis of ‘spiritual literature’ in post-Yugoslav Serbia. Following the anthropologist Alfred Gell, it argues that Orthodox texts can be understood as ‘enchanted technology’ which, in turn, allows them to work as a ‘technology of enchantment’. Spiritual literature – distributed as physical objects between bags, bookshelves, bookshops, and kiosks, as well as digitally via social media – can propel some people to grow as Orthodox Christians and relate to society in Orthodox terms. After situating the re-emergence of Orthodox publishing in historical perspective, the article shows how people defer to books and how texts circulate. Overall, the article reveals the mechanics of one form of re-enchantment.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A technology of re-enchantment: reading, referencing, and redistributing Orthodox ‘spiritual literature’ in post-Yugoslav Serbia |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2277020 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2023.2277020 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Alfred Gell, Orthodox Christianity, postsocialism, Reading, re-enchantment, Serbia, spiritual literature |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10181352 |
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