What is it about?
The work is a survey of contemporary scholarship on esotericism in the countries of former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. It examines the development of this scholarship over the last three decades. In contrast to the abundant presence of esoteric ideas and practices, scholarship on esotericism in these countries has developed slowly and unevenly across the region. It has much to do with academic prejudices toward esotericism as a subject. The paper shows that the academic studies of esotericism in these countries are finally taking hold in academia.
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Why is it important?
The work provides the first comprehensive English overview of contemporary scholarship on esotericism in the Slavic-speaking regions of the Balkans. It highlights the historical context in which this scholarship has developed and examines its specifics. It thus enables a comparative perspective that reveals important parallels with scholarship on esotericism in other parts of Europe and beyond.
Perspectives
Due to linguistic limits, much of the contemporary scholarly production on esotericism in the Slavic languages of the Balkans remains unknown in the academic communities of other parts of Europe and beyond. I hope this article will contribute to establishing much needed connections between various scholarly communities dealing with the cultural phenomenon of esotericism.
Noel Putnik
Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Recent Academic Research on Esotericism in the Balkans, Aries, January 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15700593-02301002.
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