Maria Beatrice Bittarello - Publications

Book Chapters

• "Mythologies of Virtuality: 'other space' and 'shared dimension' from ancient myths to cyberspace", Oxford Handbook of Virtuality, edited by Mark Grimshaw (OUP 2014), 86-110.

• "Reading Texts, Watching Texts: Mythopoeic Modalities in Neopagan Web-Texts." In: Reading Spiritualities: Constructing and Re-presenting the Sacred, edited by Dawn Llewellyn and Deborah Sawyer (Ashgate 2008). 189-203.

  Articles

• "The Chalybes as an Historical People." Helios 49.2 (2022): 147-176. Abstract: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/76/article/904791 (Launched on MUSE 2023-08-21)

• "The Chalybes as Mythical Blacksmiths and the Introduction of Iron." Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 13.3 (2016) LVII-Series III: 497-534. Abstract: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/637242

• "Otho, Elagabalus and The Judgement of Paris: the literary construction of the unmanly emperor." Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne 37.1 (2011): 93-113. [abstract]

• "Gaia Pammetor, Maternal Love and the Construction of Female Divinity in Contemporary Paganism." Australian Religion Studies Review 23.2 (September 2010): 191-207. [based on PhD research]

• "Western Suspicion of Polytheism, Western Thought Structures, and contemporary Pagan Polytheisms." Journal of Religion in Europe 3.1 (January 2010): 68-102. [abstract]

• "Spatial Metaphors describing the Internet and religious Websites: sacred Space and sacred Place."Observatorio (OBS*)3.4 (December 2009): 1-12.

• "The construction of Etruscan 'Otherness' in Latin Literature." Greece & Rome 56.2 (October 2009): 211-233. [abstract]

• "Another Time, another Space: Virtual Worlds, Myths and Imagination." Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 1.1 (2008): 1-10.
  [This article is an expansion of: "Another Time, another Space: Virtual Worlds, Myths and Imagination." In Being Virtually Real? Virtual Worlds from a Cultural Studies' Perspective, edited by Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, Online-Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 3.1 (2008): 246-266.

• "Contemporary Pagan Ritual and Cyberspace: Virtuality, Embodiment, and Mythopoesis." Religious Studies and Theology. Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion 27.2 (2008): 171-194. [abstract] [based on PhD thesis]

• "Shifting Realities? Changing Concepts of Religion and the Body in Popular Culture and Neopaganism." Journal of contemporary Religion 23.2 (May 2008): 215-232. [abstract] [based on PhD thesis]

• "Re-crafting the Past: The complex Relationship between Myth and Ritual in the contemporary Pagan reshaping of Eleusis." The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies 10.2 (September 2008): 230-255. [abstract] [based on PhD thesis]

• "The 'Teucer Paradigm' and the Eastern Other in Western Literature". CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.3/1 (September 2007): 1-10.

• "Neopagan Pilgrimages in the Age of the Internet: A Life changing Experience or an Example of Commodification?" Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 4.2 (July 2006): 116-135. [abstract]

  Book Reviews

• Review of "Ancient Divination and Experience", edited by Lindsay G. Driediger-Murphy, Esther Eidinow. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (July 2020).

• Review of "Ethne, identita' e tradizioni, Vol. I: la "terza" Grecia e l'Occidente; Vol. II: Graikoi ed Hellenes: storia di due Etnonimi. Diabaseis, 3. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2011", edited by Luisa Breglia, Alda Moleti, Maria Luisa Napolitano and Renata Calce. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (December 2013).

• Review of "From Artemis to Diana: the Goddess of Man and Beast", edited by Tobias Fischer-Hansen and Birte Poulsen. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (July 2010).

• Review of "L'Asie mineure dans l'Antiquite: echanges, populations et territoires", edited by Hadrien Bru, Francois Kirbihler, Stephane Lebreton. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (October 2009).

• Review of "Classics for all: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture", edited by Dunstan Lowe and Kim Shahabudin. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (April 2009).

• Review of "The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is fighting back--and how we can still save humanity", by James E. Lovelock. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 13.2 (2009): 245-247.

• Review of "Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend", by Bart D. Ehrman. The Theological Book Review (May 2009).

• Review of "Mothers of Promise: Women in the Book of Genesis", by Tammi J. Schneider. The Theological Book Review (May 2009).

• Review of "Lectura Dantis Purgatorio. A Canto-by-Canto Commentary." Edited by Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn and Charles Ross. Literature and Theology 23.1 (March 2009): 111-113.

• Review of "Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet", by Douglas E. Cowan. The Journal of Popular Culture 40.1 (February 2007): 169-170.

• Review of "Dante: A Brief History", by Peter Hawkins. Literature and Theology 21.1 (March 2007): 101-103.

• Review of "Spiritual Values in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings", by Christopher Garbowski. The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 16 (Summer 2007).

• Review of "Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western Culture", by Northrop Frye and Jay Macpherson. Literature and Theology 20.4 (December 2006): 485-487.

• Review of "Luce Irigaray, Key Writings", by Luce Irigaray. Literature and Theology 19.4 (November 2005): 410-412.

Book Reviews for the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies (published online)

• Review of "The Internet Imaginaire", by Patrice Flichy. February 2008.

• Review of "Cyborgs and Baby Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body", by Kim Toffoletti. October 2009.
  

  Encyclopaedia Articles

• "Magicians and Illusionists." (pp. 1113-1117)
  In: Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World, edited by Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster and J. Sloan (Sage 2013). 2nd ed.

• "Assyrian/Babylonian Culture" (pp.39-41); "Meso-American Cultures" (pp.386-387); "South-American Traditional Cultures (pp. 671-672)."
  In: Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society: A Social History, edited by Rodney P. Carlisle and J. Geoffrey Golson (Sage 2009).

• "Play as Rehearsal of Reality" (pp. 537-538)
  In: Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society: A Social History, edited by Rodney P. Carlisle and J. Geoffrey Golson (Sage 2009).

• "Action Heroes, Female" (pp.18-19); "Da Vinci Code" (pp.371-372); "New Age Religion" (pp.1008-1009).
  In: Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World, edited by Mary Zeiss Stange and Carol K. Oyster (Sage 2011).

• "Marco Polo" (p.376)
  In: Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society: A Social History, edited by Rodney P. Carlisle and J. Geoffrey Golson (Sage 2009).

  Conference Proceedings

• "The Discovery of the (well-known) World: Hellenic Reconstructionists meet the Kalas." In Tourism and Performance: Scripts, Stages and Stories, Sheffield (UK) 14th-18th July 2005, Conference Proceedings, compiled by Mike Robinson and David Picard. Centre for Tourism & Cultural Change, Sheffield Hallam University, 2005. [CD-ROM].

• "Searching for Classical Myths: the Re-creation of the Ancient World from Scholarly Literature to Neopagan Pilgrimages." In Tourism & Literature: Travel, Imagination and Myth, Harrogate (UK) 22nd-26th July 2004, Conference Proceedings, edited by Mike Robinson and David Picard. Centre for Tourism & Cultural Change, Sheffield Hallam University, 2004. [CD-ROM].

Research interests

• Theoretical issues in the study of religions: Myth, Play, Polytheism, Ritual, Sacred Space, Virtuality.
  

• Contemporary religious expressions: Internet Paganism, New Age, Gender, Popular Culture

• Classics and ancient history

Ph.D. THESIS [DOCTORATE]

• The Re-Creation of Ancient Classical Religions on the World Wide Web: Neopaganism as contemporary mythopoesis, 2007, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK [abstract].

Last update: August 2023

CONTACT: beatrice_bittarelloATfastmailDOTnet.