Exorcism and Its Texts: Subjectivity in Early Modern Literature of England and Spain by Hilaire Kallendorf (review)

Abstract

MLR, ioi.i, 2006 307 especially as many of the essays which would be the most obvious candidates for inclusion in such a volume do not appear in the very helpful bibliography of Ivanov's works in English translation?like the essays included in this selection. In his translations Bird succeeds in remaining as faithfulas possible to terms given very specific meanings in the context ofthe debate in which they are used: not an easy task, as many are calques of terms borrowed or developed from other philosophies or traditions. He also conveys Ivanov's syntactically complex yet elegant style most effectively,thus giving non-Russianists a further incentive to acquaint themselves with the considerable riches of Ivanov's thought. New College, Oxford Adam Fergus Exorcism and its Texts: Subjectivity in Early Modern Literature ofEngland and Spain. By Hilaire Kallendorf. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2003. xxi + 327 PP- ?48. ISBN 0-8020-8817-1. Hilaire Kallendorf's investigation into the representation of exorcism rituals in the literatures of early modern England and Spain looks at a range of texts, from Shake? speare and Cervantes to rarer material. Perhaps the key virtue ofthe book lies in what its author describes as a 'basic respect' (p. 187) forearly modern religion. Kallendorf does not bring an overbearing modern scepticism to her topic, but allows religious beliefs from the past to speak to us in their historical alterity. Her book marks a welcome departure from much of the politicized criticism of the past two decades, has which often treated religion as little more than a smokescreen for the supposedly more real concerns of ideology and power. Kallendorf focuses on genre as a key to the representation of exorcism in early modern literature. This is legitimate and illuminating, but also leads to a relative disregard for the historical and cultural contexts of literary exorcism. Hence there is a lack of serious engagement with contemporary prose treatises on exorcism, and no in-depth analysis of exorcism in relation to Reformation controversies. There is also an imbalance between Kallendorf s focus on generic conventions on the one hand, and her large historical claims about the 'early modern self on the other. Indeed, in spite of the book's subtitle, her observations on early modern subjectivity are often curiously gestural. More serious, however, is the number of inaccuracies that result in strained, even plainly erroneous, readings of especially the English and Latin sources. Kallendorf writes, for instance, that Hamlet appears to Ophelia 'with his garters crossed', like Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and claims, without offeringevidence from early modern demonology, that this is 'a typical feature of demoniacs' (p. 153). However, Hamlet's stockingsare 'wwgartered' and 'down-gyved' {Hamlet, 11. 1. 81), that is, 'fallen round his ankles'. Equally dubious is Kallendorf s reading of 'Who calls me villain, [. . .] | gives me the lie i' th' throat?' (11. 2. 549-51). She maintains, again without support? ing evidence from contemporary demonology, that Hamlet here lists 'classic signs of demonic possession' (p. 153). Yet these lines are part of a meditation on revenge; as G R. Hibbard comments in his edition, the actions listed by Hamlet 'were deadly insults that would meet with immediate retaliation from a man of honour' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 234). Kallendorf's reading oiKing Lear is similarly awkward; she goes rather too far,forexample, in maintaining that in 111.6. 20-22 Poor Tom 'attempts to east out [Lear's] demons, who appear in the shape ofhell-hounds or demonic familiars' (p. 137). As Jay L. Halio explains in his edition of the play, 'Lear imagines that even his lapdogs, possibly bitches as their names [Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart] suggest, have turned against him' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 194), and Poor Tom, without disrupting Lear's imaginings, simply 308 Reviews chases the dogs away. Some of Kallendorf's interpretations rely on metaphors of her own invention, as when she offers a 'political interpretation' of exorcism in Volpone which assumes that 'Volpone and Mosca represent a threat to the social order' that must be 'expelled or "exorcized" through the vehicle ofcomic drama' (p. 31). This sits rather uneasily with the fact that...