A new bi-annual journal on the preternatural debuts in early May. Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies in the Preternatural welcomes original scholarship on topics such as magic, prophecy, monsters, demonology and the occult.
The editorial team consists of editor Kirsten Uszkalo, a literary scholar at the universities of Alberta and Athabasca, and book review editor Richard Raiswell, who teaches history at the University of Prince Edward Island.
A sample article from the first issue: “Carnal Knowledge: The Epistemology of Sexual Trauma in Witches’ Sabbaths, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and Alien Abduction Narratives.” Dr. Uszkalo says the content for the journal’s second issue is already set, while the third issue is in revision stage.
Why the preternatural? “The magic spell, the evil eye, the fairy and the werewolf may appear as passing references, but they continue to reappear,” she explains, “and, as such, these topics continue to fascinate. In investigating the role of the wondrous and terrible in histories, literatures and art, we hope to illuminate just how flexible and ever-present the idea of the preternatural is.”