One area of history that historians have ignored is that of children and their relationship to witchcraft and the witch trials. This thesis begins with a survey of historical done on the general theme of childhood, and moves on to review secondary literature about children and the continental witch trials. The thesis also reviews demonological theory relating to children and the roles children played in the minds of continental and English demonologists. Children played various roles: murder victims, victims of dedication to Satan, child-witches, witnesses for the prosecution, victims of bewitchment or possession, and victims of seduction into witchcraft. The final section of the thesis deals with children and English witchcraft. In England children tended to play the same roles as described by the demonologists.

This thesis discusses early modern European perceptions of body and soul in association with the increasing stringency of civilized behaviour and state formation in an effort to provide motivation for the increased severity of the witch hunts of that time. Both secondary and primary sources have been used, in particular the contemporary demonologies by such authors as Bodin, and Kramer and Sprenger. The thesis is divided into five chapters, including an Introduction and Conclusion. The body of the thesis focuses on religious, scientific, and secular beliefs (Ch. 2), appearance and characteristics of witches (Ch. 3), and the activities and behaviours/actions of witches, (Ch. 4). This study concentrates on the similarities found across Europe, and, as the majority of witches persecuted were female, my thesis emphasizes women as victims of the witch hunts.

Analisamos, neste trabalho, o filme Anticristo (2009), do cineasta Lars von Trier, tomando como base um viés crítico que contemplasse a relação entre sua construção formal e seus conteúdos implícitos e explícitos. Assim como outras obras do artista, igualmente questionadoras, perturbadoras e políticas, Anticristo mostra-se capaz de apontar dinâmicas histórico-sociais relevantes para a compreensão de seu tempo, além de desnudar diversas características substanciais do pensamento hegemônico, espantosamente naturalizadas. Nesses termos, a tese proposta é a de que o filme reapropria-se de um método estéticopolítico brechtiano com o fim de criar uma contraposição ao modelo dramático que orienta grande parte das produções cinematográficas mainstream. Sendo responsável por sua estruturação mais ampla, essa reapropriação vincula-se à formatação do foco narrativo do filme, associado à personagem masculina e plasmado com várias nuances de obras de Strindberg e de Freud, bem como do Expressionismo. Configura-se, portanto, essencial o exame da inter-relação que Anticristo apresenta entre os planos histórico e social, e os planos do indivíduo e de sua subjetividade, inclusive de sua construção psíquica. A partir dessa análise revelam-se contradições fundamentais da sociedade ocidental, sobretudo no que se refere às questões de gênero, guarnecidas pela inquietante alusão que o filme faz à caça às bruxas. / In this thesis, we analyze the film Antichrist (2009), by Lars von Trier, from a critical perspective that contemplates the relationship between its formal construction and its implicit and explicit content. As with other works by the artist, equally questioning, disturbing and political, Antichrist has shown itself capable of pointing out historical and social dynamics that are relevant to the comprehension of its time; it also lays bare several substantial characteristics of the hegemonic thinking, which are naturalized in an unsettling way. Accordingly, the proposed thesis is that a Brechtian aesthetic-political method is reappropriated by the film, in order to counterpoint the dramatic model that guides much of the mainstream film productions. Being responsible for the broader structuring of Antichrist, this re-appropriation is linked to the design of the films narrative perspective, which is associated to the male character and shaped by various nuances of works by Strindberg and Freud, and also of Expressionism. The examination of the interrelationship between the historical and social level, and the level of the individual and of his subjectivity, including his mental construction, becomes thus essential in Antichrist. From such analysis, fundamental contradictions of Western society can be unveiled, especially the ones regarding gender issues, which are furnished by the uncanny allusion to the Witch Hunt brought up by the film.

<p>Ulla Isaksson (1916 – 2000) wrote many novels, often with a woman or several women as protagonists. In <em>Dit du icke vill</em> (“Where Thou Willst Not”) from 1956 she depicts a crisis of faith in a woman, which would not have been successful had she chosen a contemporary setting. She uses an adequate historical framework, the prosecution of witches in Sweden in the 17^th century, well documented in reliable sources. Her novel includes a message about oppression of women, manifest in patriarchal ambition to control ancient wisdom about healing and herbs and the denial of pre-Christian habits that include knowledge about female fertility, earlier exercised by midwives and wise women and men.</p><p>In “The Root of Evil” the novel is placed in a feminist tradition, where the author, like older writers like Fredrika Bremer, Ellen Key and Elin Wägner, pleads for “social mothering”.  A major difference is that, in her own life, Ulla Isaksson has experienced pregnancy, giving birth and breastfeeding which none of the pioneering Swedish feminist writers had. Emilia Fogelklou, pioneering theologian, wrote about witches as wise women, a study that influenced Ulla Isaksson. The witches are described as mirroring Hanna “the Good Mother”. Their fantasies about life at “Blåkulla” are similar to the everyday life at a wealthy farmstead. This kind of mirroring reminds of the theories of Gilbert and Gubar, who assume that female writers in the 19^th Century hid their revolt against patriarchy in mad women, like “The Madwoman in the Attic” in Jane Eyre. In the 1950s, golden age of the Swedish housewife, a female writer might well hide her anger at the circumscribed role model dedicated to women in a similar use of Anti-Women. The real witches clearly contrast the obedient protagonist, a true “Angel in the house”.</p><p>The villagers´ struggle to clear the ground from the ensnaring roots that hinder the male prosecution of witches imply a symbolic reading: this evil root is ancient matriarchal knowledge of childbearing and birth control. A theory on the original causes for the witch hunts in western Europe is introduced: the population sank in the 15^th century and one reason, beside plagues, starvation and warfare, was that women aware of how to prevent childbearing and giving birth to a lot of children were killed during the witch hunt. Churches and kings introduced the prosecution of witches and wise women, including midwives.</p>

Ulla Isaksson (1916 – 2000) wrote many novels, often with a woman or several women as protagonists. In Dit du icke vill (“Where Thou Willst Not”) from 1956 she depicts a crisis of faith in a woman, which would not have been successful had she chosen a contemporary setting. She uses an adequate historical framework, the prosecution of witches in Sweden in the 17th century, well documented in reliable sources. Her novel includes a message about oppression of women, manifest in patriarchal ambition to control ancient wisdom about healing and herbs and the denial of pre-Christian habits that include knowledge about female fertility, earlier exercised by midwives and wise women and men. In “The Root of Evil” the novel is placed in a feminist tradition, where the author, like older writers like Fredrika Bremer, Ellen Key and Elin Wägner, pleads for “social mothering”.  A major difference is that, in her own life, Ulla Isaksson has experienced pregnancy, giving birth and breastfeeding which none of the pioneering Swedish feminist writers had. Emilia Fogelklou, pioneering theologian, wrote about witches as wise women, a study that influenced Ulla Isaksson. The witches are described as mirroring Hanna “the Good Mother”. Their fantasies about life at “Blåkulla” are similar to the everyday life at a wealthy farmstead. This kind of mirroring reminds of the theories of Gilbert and Gubar, who assume that female writers in the 19th Century hid their revolt against patriarchy in mad women, like “The Madwoman in the Attic” in Jane Eyre. In the 1950s, golden age of the Swedish housewife, a female writer might well hide her anger at the circumscribed role model dedicated to women in a similar use of Anti-Women. The real witches clearly contrast the obedient protagonist, a true “Angel in the house”. The villagers´ struggle to clear the ground from the ensnaring roots that hinder the male prosecution of witches imply a symbolic reading: this evil root is ancient matriarchal knowledge of childbearing and birth control. A theory on the original causes for the witch hunts in western Europe is introduced: the population sank in the 15th century and one reason, beside plagues, starvation and warfare, was that women aware of how to prevent childbearing and giving birth to a lot of children were killed during the witch hunt. Churches and kings introduced the prosecution of witches and wise women, including midwives.

Analisamos, neste trabalho, o filme Anticristo (2009), do cineasta Lars von Trier, tomando como base um viés crítico que contemplasse a relação entre sua construção formal e seus conteúdos implícitos e explícitos. Assim como outras obras do artista, igualmente questionadoras, perturbadoras e políticas, Anticristo mostra-se capaz de apontar dinâmicas histórico-sociais relevantes para a compreensão de seu tempo, além de desnudar diversas características substanciais do pensamento hegemônico, espantosamente naturalizadas. Nesses termos, a tese proposta é a de que o filme reapropria-se de um método estéticopolítico brechtiano com o fim de criar uma contraposição ao modelo dramático que orienta grande parte das produções cinematográficas mainstream. Sendo responsável por sua estruturação mais ampla, essa reapropriação vincula-se à formatação do foco narrativo do filme, associado à personagem masculina e plasmado com várias nuances de obras de Strindberg e de Freud, bem como do Expressionismo. Configura-se, portanto, essencial o exame da inter-relação que Anticristo apresenta entre os planos histórico e social, e os planos do indivíduo e de sua subjetividade, inclusive de sua construção psíquica. A partir dessa análise revelam-se contradições fundamentais da sociedade ocidental, sobretudo no que se refere às questões de gênero, guarnecidas pela inquietante alusão que o filme faz à caça às bruxas. / In this thesis, we analyze the film Antichrist (2009), by Lars von Trier, from a critical perspective that contemplates the relationship between its formal construction and its implicit and explicit content. As with other works by the artist, equally questioning, disturbing and political, Antichrist has shown itself capable of pointing out historical and social dynamics that are relevant to the comprehension of its time; it also lays bare several substantial characteristics of the hegemonic thinking, which are naturalized in an unsettling way. Accordingly, the proposed thesis is that a Brechtian aesthetic-political method is reappropriated by the film, in order to counterpoint the dramatic model that guides much of the mainstream film productions. Being responsible for the broader structuring of Antichrist, this re-appropriation is linked to the design of the films narrative perspective, which is associated to the male character and shaped by various nuances of works by Strindberg and Freud, and also of Expressionism. The examination of the interrelationship between the historical and social level, and the level of the individual and of his subjectivity, including his mental construction, becomes thus essential in Antichrist. From such analysis, fundamental contradictions of Western society can be unveiled, especially the ones regarding gender issues, which are furnished by the uncanny allusion to the Witch Hunt brought up by the film.

[pt] Esta dissertação analisará a (re)produção das formas de controles de corpos e sexualidades em diferentes espaços e tempos. Tal análise é possível através do entendimento, desenvolvido em trabalhos anteriores, de que o pensamento moldado pela Inquisição e a caça às bruxas na Idade Média foi reproduzido durante a construção do Brasil enquanto sociedade. No trabalho presente, será somada a tal entendimento a hipótese de que o pensamento medieval continua permeando o imaginário social da sociedade brasileira na atualidade. Para tal, serão analisadas práticas de esterilização involuntárias de mulheres negras no Brasil a partir da década de 1980; assim como, discursos e práticas violentas contra a comunidade LGBTQIA+ (Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis/Transexuais/Transgêneros, Queers, Intersexuais, Agêneros/Assexuais/Arromânticos e outras possibilidades de orientação sexual e identificação de gênero) perpetrados por grupos contra a ideologia de gênero, representados aqui em grande parte por membros do governo Bolsonaro. Com base em correntes teóricas feministas, principalmente dos feminismos negro e decolonial, serão ressaltados os efeitos das posicionalidades de gênero, sexualidade e raça dos sujeitos alvos de violência. / [en] This dissertation will analyze the (re)production of forms of control of bodies and sexualities in different spaces and times. Such an analysis is possible through the understanding, developed in previous works, that the thought shaped by the Inquisition and the witch hunt in the Middle Ages was reproduced during the construction of Brazil as a society. In the present work, it will be added to this understanding the hypothesis that the medieval thought continues to permeate the social imaginary of Brazilian society today. To this end, involuntary sterilization practices of black women in Brazil from the 1980s will be analyzed; as well as, violent speeches and practices against the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans/Transsexual/Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexuals/Aromantics and other possibilities of sexual orientation and gender identification) community perpetrated by groups against the gender ideology, represented here largely by members of the Bolsonaro government. Based on feminist theoretical currents, mainly black and decolonial feminisms, the effects of the gender, sexuality and race positions of the subjects targeted by violence will be highlighted.