Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Myhill, Nova
Area of Concentration
English
Abstract
Across centuries, the figure of the witch has been used to represent cultural fears and fantasies surrounding gender and power. This thesis examines the varying cultural narratives that have emerged around the archetype of the witch. Chapter One is a reading of three 17th-century English witchcraft plays, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606), John Ford, Thomas Dekker and William Rowley’s The Witch of Edmonton (1621), and Richard Brome and Thomas Heywood’s The Late Lancashire Witches (1634), exploring how witchcraft was portrayed in an era when it was widely believed to exist as a real phenomenon. Chapter Two explores historical fiction written about the Salem witch trials — Elizabeth Gaskell’s Lois the Witch (1859) and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953), where it is now the accusers, not the witches, who become the true threat. Finally, Chapter Three explores revisionist reclamations of the witch as a positive symbol of feminine power and heroic non-conformity through Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1986) and Terry Pratchett’s The Wee Free Men (2003).
Recommended Citation
Craven, Claire, "AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO: WITCHCRAFT IN THE CULTURAL IMAGINATION FROM THE 17TH TO THE 21ST CENTURY" (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5674.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5674