Plots and Powers: Magical Structures in Medieval Narrative

From Amazon: In this final book of her pioneering investigation of logical problems in medieval narrative texts, Anne Wilson offers a practical guide to her approach. She argues that certain narrative plots, some of them famous for their inconsistencies, have been created by a form of thought that we have not recognized.

Wilson demonstrates that texts full of apparent contradictions and incongruities contain highly organized plots, made up of repetitive, ritual structures. These structures can be invested with power by storytellers and audiences, which can serve to bring about desired states of mind. Investigating the individual structures in each text provides evidence for a new, intellectually rigorous definition of “magic” as a system of thought in which participants invest narrative elements with particular power.