Eve Burns

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Baram, Uzi

Area of Concentration

General Studies

Abstract

This thesis discusses the representations and some of the popular ideas surrounding the witch-figure from Antiquity to now by examining the iconography and symbolism used in witch depictions. Witch-figures from three different European cultures and three different time periods will be examined, and in each chapter an artistic summary of the witch iconography is presented, which will act as not only a summary, but a means to facilitate discussion, and are later argued to be part of the solution in reclaiming the witch-figure for contemporary witches. In the third chapter, two types of witch figures will be presented and argued to be the foundations for the development of the contemporary tropes of the ‘good’ and the ‘evil’ witch. Finally, this thesis discusses how demonization of the witch figure negatively effects contemporary self-identifying witches and presents some possible solutions for this, primarily through changing contemporary-witch depictions to more closely reflect the modern witch, possibly through increasing creative self-representations of witches from today.

Download

Share

COinS