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- Title
Humorous Spaces and Serious Magic in William Baldwin's Beware the Cat.
- Authors
Ecklund, Ashley Jeanette
- Abstract
When spaces transform in William Baldwin's Beware the Cat, the transition marked with humor, consistently signaling magic to follow. As an amalgamation folklore, including magic that manifests around, for, and through cats, Baldwin's work offers adventure, laughter, and danger alike. Some cats are diabolical, worshiping or holding the soul of a witch; however, their wit constitutes a jocular contrast to that of our interior narrator, Maister Streamer, whose quotation above demonstrates a serious misunderstanding of St. Augustine's beliefs. Though Beware The Cat was published at the start of the early modern period, the folklore it contains speaks with medieval magic, and as such, characters debate and grapple with their conflicting and evolving views of the magical elements within their stories. Thus, Beware the Cat, though imbibed with humor, is equally weaved with cultural meaning, and on a meta level, the text's multilayered framing welcomes the simultaneousness of this reading.
- Subjects
MAGIC; COINCIDENCE; AMALGAMATION; FOLKLORE; LAUGHTER; WIT &; humor; SOUL
- Publication
Quidditas, 2021, Vol 42, p129
- ISSN
1544-9971
- Publication type
Article