Witchcraft: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the scholarly study of witchcraft, exploring the phenomenon of witchcraft from its earliest definitions in the Middle Ages through to its resonances in the modern world. Through the use of two case studies, this book delves into the emergence of the witch as a harmful figure within western thought and traces the representation of witchcraft throughout history, analysing the roles of culture, religion, politics, gender and more in the evolution and enduring role of witchcraft.
Key topics discussed within the book include:
- The role of language in creating and shaping the concept of witchcraft
- The laws and treatises written against witchcraft
- The representation of witchcraft in early modern literature
- The representation of witchcraft in recent literature, TV and film
- Scholarly approaches to witchcraft through time
- The relationship between witchcraft and paganism
With an extensive further reading list, summaries and questions to consider at the end of each chapter, Witchcraft: The Basics is an ideal introduction for anyone wishing to learn more about this controversial issue in human culture, which is still very much alive today.
Introduction
Chapter One The early modern context: a case study of early modern Britain
Chapter Two The seventeenth and early eighteenth century context: America as the major case study
Chapter Three Witchcraft in early modern literature: "the witchcraft renaissance"
Chapter Four Witchcraft Studies
Chapter Five Witchcraft Today: Religious Redefinitions
Chapter Six Reinventing the good witch
Further Study Reading List
Index
Biography
Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at Exeter University and works on witches, magic, paganism and the supernatural in literature. Her previous publications include: Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft (2017), Imagining the Pagan Past (2013), Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity co-edited with Shelley Trower and Garry Tregidga (2012), Witchcraft Myths in American Culture (2007), Possession, Puritanism and Print: Darrell, Harsnett, Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Exorcism Controversy (2006) and Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches (1999).
'Marion Gibson is one of the nation's finest scholars of the literature of witchcraft, in the broadest sense, and this book represents a crown to the decades of research and authorship which have won her that distinction. Like all she has done before, it is original, accessible, and has a wonderfully wide sweep.'Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol, UK
'Marion Gibson offers an outstanding introduction to witchcraft and to the texts that have created and shaped our understanding of witchcraft over time. She deftly unpacks early modern demonologies and trial records, as well as plays and poetry, providing expert guidance on how to read these sources and decipher the depictions of witchcraft they convey. She also examines trends in modern scholarship and in modern popular culture that have shaped and reshaped the notion of what a witch could be. This book offers a truly interdisciplinary blend of history, literature, and cultural studies.'Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University, USA
"This is an excellent introduction to witchcraft studies."
Dawn Hutchinson, Christopher Newport University
