Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England
AuthorJean Sybil La Fontaine
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSatanic ritual abuse
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherCambridge University Press
Publication date
1998
Pages224
ISBN0-521-62934-9
OCLC36548968
364.15/554/0941 21
LC ClassHV6626.54.G7 L3 1998

Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England is a scholarly book by J. S. La Fontaine published in 1998 that discusses her investigation of allegations of satanic ritual abuse made in the United Kingdom. The book documents a detailed investigation of the accounts of children during a wave of allegations of satanic ritual abuse, as well as the processes within the social work profession that supported the allegations despite a lack of evidence.[1]

Reception

Academic reviews

The book was reviewed by Joel Best,[2] T. M. Luhrmann,[3] James Beckford,[4] and I. K. Wier.[5] Robin Woffitt of the University of Surrey praised the book for clearly describing the origins of the satanic ritual abuse moral panic in the United Kingdom.[1]

Subsequent academic reception

The English archaeologist Timothy Taylor critically discussed Fontaine's work in his book The Buried Soul: How Humans Invented Death (2002). He compared the work to the anthropologist William Arens's 1979 book The Man-Eating Myth, which he described as a "hollow certainty of viscerally insulated inexperience". Asserting that Arens's uses a flawed methodology that has echoes of Speak of the Devil, Taylor himself suggests that multiple claims of the Satanic ritual abuse have been incorrectly dismissed for being considered "improbable".[6]

Publication details

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Wooffitt, R (30 June 1998). "Book review - Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England". 3 (2). Sociological Research Online. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Best, J; Fontaine, J. S. La (1999). "Reviewed work(s): Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England by J. S. La Fontaine". Contemporary Sociology. American Sociological Association. 28 (1): 107–108. doi:10.2307/2653911. JSTOR 2653911.
  3. ^ LUHRMANN, TM (2000). "Reviews - Speak of the Devil. Tales of satanic abuse in contemporary England. BY J. S. LA FONTAINE". Social Anthropology. 8 (1): 79–89. doi:10.1017/S0964028200230085.
  4. ^ Beckford, JA (1999). "Book Review - J. S. La Fontaine, Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England". Sociology. 33 (1): 217–218. doi:10.1177/0038038599033001024. S2CID 220675732.
  5. ^ Weir, IK (1999). "Book Reviews - Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England. By J. S. La Fontaine". Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 40 (5): 829–832. doi:10.1017/s0021963099213832.
  6. ^ Taylor 2002. pp. 280–283.

Bibliography

Categories