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Rehabilitating the Witch: The Literary Representation of the Witch from the "Malleus Maleficarum" to "Les Enfants du sabbat"January 2012 (has links)
The representation of the witch in French literature has evolved considerably over the centuries. While originally portrayed as a benevolent and caring healer in works by Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, and the anonymous author of Amadas et Ydoine , the witch eventually underwent a dramatic and unfortunate transformation. By the fifteenth century, authors began to portray her as a malevolent and dangerous agent of the Christian Devil. Martin Le Franc, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, François Rabelais, and Pierre Corneille all created evil witch figures that corresponded with this new definition. It was not until the eighteenth century, through the works of Voltaire and the Encyclopédistes, that the rehabilitation of the witch began. By the twentieth century, Anne Hébert, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maryse Condé, and Sebastiano Vassalli began to rewrite the witch character by engaging in a process of demystification and by demonstrating that the "witch" was really just a victim of the society in which she lived. These authors humanized their witch figures by concentrating on the victimization of their witch protagonists and by exposing the ways in which their fictional societies unjustly created identities for their witch protagonists that were based on false judgments and rumors. Hébert attacks Sigmund Freud's association of the witch and the hysteric, Sartre utilizes his witches to expose many of his existential ideals, Condé highlights the role that racism played in witchcraft, and Vassalli strives to rewrite history by telling the story from the point of view of his witch character. Each twentieth-century author provides a story that deconstructs the very nature of the witch as this had been constructed over time, and shows how witches expose the problems associated with understanding one's place in the world in both their individual and their social dimensions. The witch, for these authors, challenges dominant norms and reveals how much our identities are influenced by our interactions with other individuals. And, because the witches in each text are marginal beings, they expose the repressiveness of their particular environments and the idiosyncrasies of their cultures. In all these ways, or so these 20 th -century authors contend, we as modern readers, can relate to their situations and learn from their stories.
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Screaming, flying, and laughing: magical feminism's witches in contemporary film, television, and novelsWells, Kimberly Ann 17 September 2007 (has links)
This project argues that there is a previously unnamed canon of literature called
Magical Feminism which exists across many current popular (even lowbrow) genres
such as science-fiction, fantasy, so-called realistic literature, and contemporary
television and film. I define Magical Feminism as a genre quite similar to Magical
Realism, but assert that its main political thrust is to model a feminist agency for its
readers. To define this genre, I closely-read the image of the female magic user as one
of the most important Magical Feminist metaphors. I argue that the female magic
userâÂÂcommonly called the witch, but also labeled priestess, mistress, shaman, mambo,
healer, midwifeâ is a metaphor for female unruliness and disruption to patriarchy and
as such, is usually portrayed as evil and deserving of punishment. I assert that many
(although not all) of the popular texts this genre includes are overlooked or ignored by
the academy, and thus, that an important focus for contemporary feminism is missed.
When the texts are noticed by parts of the academy, they are mostly considered popular
culture novelty acts, not serious political genres. As part of my argument, I analyze third wave feminismâÂÂs attempt to reconcile traits previously considered less than
feminist, such as the domestic. I also deconstruct the popular mediaâÂÂs negative
portrayal of contemporary feminism and the resulting reluctance for many young
women to identify themselves as feminist. I also argue that this reluctance goes hand in
hand with a growing attempt to seek new models for empowering female
epistemologies. My assertion is that these texts are the classrooms where many readers
learn their feminism. Finally, I list a short bibliography as a way of defining canon of
texts that should be considered Magical Feminist.
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