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Women who fly : goddesses, witches, mystics, and other airborne females / Serinity Young.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]Description: 1 online resource (xiii, 358 pages)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780190659691
  • 0190659696
Subject(s): Additional physical formats: Print version:: Women who fly.DDC classification:
  • 200.82 23
LOC classification:
  • BL473.5 .Y685 2018
Other classification:
  • online - EBSCO
Online resources:
Contents:
Introduction : Female flight ; Heroines, freedom, and captivity ; Transcendence and immanence ; Shape-shifting -- Earth, sky, women, and immortality : Earth, sky, and birds ; Magical flight, ascension, and assumption ; Dreams, women, and flying ; Humans, divinities, and birds : Apotheosis; Birds; Bird goddesses -- Part I. Supernatural women : Winged goddesses of sexuality, death, and immortality : Isis ; Women, death, sexuality, and immortality ; The ancient Near East ; Ancient Greece : Athena and the monstrous-feminine; Aphrodite; Nike -- The fall of the Valkyries : Brunhilde in the Volsungs saga ; Images and meanings ; Brunhilde in the Nibelungenlied ; Wagner's Brunhilde -- Swan maidens: captivity and sexuality : Urvaśī ; Images and meanings ; Northern European tales : Tchaikovsky's Swan lake ; Asian swan maidens : Feather robes and dance ; Two Middle Eastern tales : Hasan of Basra; Janshah -- Angels and fairies: male flight and contrary females : Angels and demons ; Fairies : Morgan le Fay; Fairy brides; Asian fairies -- Apsarās: enabling male immortality, part 1 : In Hinduism : Relations with heroes; Seducing ascetics; Kings, Devadāsīs, and fertility ; In Buddhism : Seductresses; The Saundarānanda -- Yoginīs and ḍākinīs: enabling male immortality, part 2 : Tantra ; Yoginīs : Yoginī temples; Practices and stories; Sexual yoga; Taming ; Ḍākinīs : Subduing; Tibetan practitioners -- Part II. Human women : Witches and succubi: male sexual fantasies : Medea ; Ancient witches and sexuality : Circe; The witch of Endor ; Succubi and Incubi ; Witches in Christian Europe : The Witches' sabbath; Women and the demonic; Flying -- Women shamans: fluctuations in female spiritual power : The Nišan shaman ; Becoming a shaman ; Magical flight, ritual dress, and spirit animals ; Gender ; Transvestism and sex change ; Sexuality -- Flying mystics, or the exceptional woman, part I : St. Christian the astonishing ; Flight and sanctity : St. Irene of Chrysobalanton; St. Elisabeth of Schönau ; Female and male mystics : Hadewijch of Brabant -- Flying mystics, or the exceptional woman, part II : Islam : Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyya; Other aerial Ṣūfī women ; Daoism : Sun Bu'er; Daoist beliefs and practices ; Buddhism : Human ḍākinīs; Machig Lapdron and Chod practice -- The aviatrix: nationalism, women, and heroism : Wonder Woman ; Amelia Earhart : Death and the heroine ; Hanna Reitsch ; Women, heroism, and militarism -- Conclusion : The exceptional woman ; Women and war.
Summary: Flying women are a common motif in the world's myths and religions. Not necessarily winged, these women elicit reactions of fear, fascination, and ambivalence, and in so doing reveal much about the perceptions of female power and sexuality through the ages. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, and art, Women Who Fly sheds new light on the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions around the world.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Flying women are a common motif in the world's myths and religions. Not necessarily winged, these women elicit reactions of fear, fascination, and ambivalence, and in so doing reveal much about the perceptions of female power and sexuality through the ages. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, and art, Women Who Fly sheds new light on the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions around the world.

Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 29, 2018).

Introduction : Female flight ; Heroines, freedom, and captivity ; Transcendence and immanence ; Shape-shifting -- Earth, sky, women, and immortality : Earth, sky, and birds ; Magical flight, ascension, and assumption ; Dreams, women, and flying ; Humans, divinities, and birds : Apotheosis; Birds; Bird goddesses -- Part I. Supernatural women : Winged goddesses of sexuality, death, and immortality : Isis ; Women, death, sexuality, and immortality ; The ancient Near East ; Ancient Greece : Athena and the monstrous-feminine; Aphrodite; Nike -- The fall of the Valkyries : Brunhilde in the Volsungs saga ; Images and meanings ; Brunhilde in the Nibelungenlied ; Wagner's Brunhilde -- Swan maidens: captivity and sexuality : Urvaśī ; Images and meanings ; Northern European tales : Tchaikovsky's Swan lake ; Asian swan maidens : Feather robes and dance ; Two Middle Eastern tales : Hasan of Basra; Janshah -- Angels and fairies: male flight and contrary females : Angels and demons ; Fairies : Morgan le Fay; Fairy brides; Asian fairies -- Apsarās: enabling male immortality, part 1 : In Hinduism : Relations with heroes; Seducing ascetics; Kings, Devadāsīs, and fertility ; In Buddhism : Seductresses; The Saundarānanda -- Yoginīs and ḍākinīs: enabling male immortality, part 2 : Tantra ; Yoginīs : Yoginī temples; Practices and stories; Sexual yoga; Taming ; Ḍākinīs : Subduing; Tibetan practitioners -- Part II. Human women : Witches and succubi: male sexual fantasies : Medea ; Ancient witches and sexuality : Circe; The witch of Endor ; Succubi and Incubi ; Witches in Christian Europe : The Witches' sabbath; Women and the demonic; Flying -- Women shamans: fluctuations in female spiritual power : The Nišan shaman ; Becoming a shaman ; Magical flight, ritual dress, and spirit animals ; Gender ; Transvestism and sex change ; Sexuality -- Flying mystics, or the exceptional woman, part I : St. Christian the astonishing ; Flight and sanctity : St. Irene of Chrysobalanton; St. Elisabeth of Schönau ; Female and male mystics : Hadewijch of Brabant -- Flying mystics, or the exceptional woman, part II : Islam : Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyya; Other aerial Ṣūfī women ; Daoism : Sun Bu'er; Daoist beliefs and practices ; Buddhism : Human ḍākinīs; Machig Lapdron and Chod practice -- The aviatrix: nationalism, women, and heroism : Wonder Woman ; Amelia Earhart : Death and the heroine ; Hanna Reitsch ; Women, heroism, and militarism -- Conclusion : The exceptional woman ; Women and war.