123422 SE Literary & Cultural Studies Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2013W)

The seminar will focus on the perennial and cross-cultural phenomenon of "witchcraft" and its various historical manifestations across cultures. While focussing on the issue of witchcraft and witch-persecution in 17th c.England and Scotland, texts from other areas of the English-speaking world dealing with witchcraft (notably from America and the Caribbean) will also be included. Two introductory units will provide a brief introduction to the phenomenology and history of witchcraft, as well as to the history of the European witch-craze of the 16th and 17th centuries. In particular the peculiar obsession with witchcraft of King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) will be explored and demonstrated on the basis of his notorious treatise "Daemonology" (1597). Some recent theories and critical interdisciplinary approaches to this universal phenomenon will likewise be considered. The epistemological framework given should help students to analyze the literary works under discussion from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective and to enable them to discern the specific features of witchcraft inherent in the literary constructions of witches and witchcraft. The works selected for discussion include Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome‘s play "The Late Lancashire Witches" (1634), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown“ (1835), Mary Sharrat’s novel “Daughters of the Witching Hill“ (2011), and short stories of the 20th and 21st centuries by authors from various countries of the English-speaking world.