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De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus, ‘On Witches and Female Soothsayers’, is a witchcraft treatise written in 1489 by Ulrich Molitor. In a dialogue of ten chapters, Molitor, his patron Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, and Conrad Schatz, chief magistrate of Constance discuss the powers of witches, ultimately concluding that they are generally products of demonic illusion. De lamiis was the first illustrated treatise on witchcraft, but its images do not always correspond with the dialogue’s content because they drew on contemporary visual sources and acquired independence. Thus, Molitor’s woodcuts also shed light on the developing witch stereotypes in both word and image. Remarkably, forty-three editions of De lamiis were printed in the period 1489–1669—more editions than the extensively-studied Malleus Maleficarum. After 1460, all but two editions of the Malleus were published in anthologies containing De lamiis. This raises questions about the significance of the Malleus and other demonological treatises in witchcraft history, and allows us to explore the ways in which witchcraft treatises were read and understood. This article presents the first comprehensive study of De lamiis’s printed history. Although historians tend to interpret demonological treatises as fixed representations of learned attitudes to witchcraft, De lamiis shows that no work was immutable. The forty-two editions of De lamiis reveal a constantly changing set of ideas and images, both reflecting and influencing witchcraft beliefs. This holistic approach allows us to study the demonological treatise in a new light. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although "witch-hunt" is still an expression in use in the 21st century, its metaphorical meaning has replaced its original historical meaning because witches are no longer outlaws. They are revered and are figures of empowerment. Looking back at one of the most famous witch-hunts before the modern period, the Salem witch-hunt stands out because of the careful documentation and also the thoroughness with which it was studied. In its 300+ years of history, literary renditions of the event, the situation of the village, the characters, and even possible alternatives have proliferated. Recent decades have witnessed not only historical fiction using the Salem setting as the background of human drama, but also a trend of quasi-biographical journeying taken up by contemporary writers tracing their own family histories to individual characters in the Salem witch-hunt. This paper will examine this thread of contemporary fiction which takes the form of tracing a contemporary character's family history back to the Salem witch-hunt. Recent fictions such as Gallows Hill (1997), The Lace Reader (2006), The Shape of Mercy (2008), and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009) seek to link contemporary characters and situations back to the Salem village during the witch-hunt. The paper argues that this trend demonstrates not only a different reading of the historical event, but that this new reading fulfills a psychological and emotional need contemporary society exhibits. In other words, these new perceptions and interpretations of the Salem witch-hunt are in fact disguised representations of the anxiety we are feeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented about how the connection between devil, witches and dreams was represented in studies of early modern witchcraft in Europe. It discusses distinguished contributions of various Spanish writers to the tradition of doubt towards the reality of witches. It also explores the different methodological approaches of historians like Carlo Ginzburg to the interpretation of dreams and study of witchcraft.

In this article, I discuss the literary uses of witches and witchcraft in two British novels of the mid-1920s, in the social context of the contemporaneous fashion for the occult: Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes (1926) and John Buchan's Witch Wood (1927). I hope to show that these novels employ witchcraft as their defining theme, to function as a symbol for non-conformity to society's norms. In both novels non-conformity also acts as an extreme of belief, that rejects the Christian belief system altogether, and uses witchcraft as the means to worship a higher power. Paradoxically, despite witchcraft being routinely used as a symbol of corruption, in these novels the witches are agents of free will. The importance of both novelists' use of fantasy in mediating their ideas about resisting social pressure through non-conformist acts is that fantasy, and the Gothic, make difficult ideas more palatable to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how ghosts, witches, legends and indigenous goddesses are treated in the works of some major contemporary Latina writers. Among the writers discussed are Sandra Cisneros, Gloria Anzaldúa and Ana Castillo. Topics covered include how modern Latina writers see the indigenous ancestral spirits as symbols of female strength, and the witches and their symbolism in Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street."

Witches have always represented a merciless, selfish and unscrupulous form of femininity, ready to undergo occult rituals in order to kill, provoke diseases, conjure up demons and/or foretell the future. Despite their sinister aspect and evil energies, postmodern witches have now partially lost their malignant powers and have gained an intertextual role instead; this enriches their esoteric value with a metaliterary dimension. I shall illustrate this assumption on the basis of two examples: the first, the female characters in Beckett's dramaticule Come and Go (1967), echo Shakespeare's Weird Sisters in Macbeth but bewitch the reader into turning around in an intertextual circle and surfing from one literary creation to another. The second example is represented by Sycorax and Serafine, a seventeenth century witch and her postmodern double: reshaped in Marina Warner's novel Indigo (1992), she is based on Shakespeare's character from The Tempest. The witchcraft of both Indigo sorceresses can ultimately be reduced to creative story-telling, to boiling a magic potion in the cauldron of intertextuality. The spell they cast is an occult force which encourages postmodern readers and writers to continue their stories, to develop the intertextual field generated by Shakespeare, and to link works which initially have not been connected in any way by their authors. The witches' esoteric force rejuvenates literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In his Seyahatnâme (Book of Travels), Evliya Çelebi tells stories about witches, vampires and wizards. The context and place of these tales should be reviewed with a fictional approach instead of being labelled as mere "exaggerations". Using a close reading technique, this paper focuses on three extraordinary incidents that Evliya Çelebi experienced, and the context of these incidents within different "Books". The element of "fear" will be explored regarding the tales on the war of witches flying on various objects in a Circassian village in the seventh book, a witch who turns into a chicken in a Bulgarian village in the third book and a Kalmuk Tatarian wizard making a weather spell to freeze a river in the eight book. By putting forth the common features between these tales, this paper attempts to demonstrate how, from a fictive point of view, Evliya Çelebi makes use of supernatural narratives in folk tradition and at which points he deviates from them. The fictional style of Evliya Çelebi will be analyzed by mainly focusing on the role of amusement, egzotism and parody in breaking the monotony of narration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Meinhold's novel Maria Schweidler, die Bernsteinhexe () as an example of a literary hoax. Purporting to be an authentic seventeenth-century chronicle of a local witch trial, the text was conceived by Meinhold, a conservative Pomeranian cleric and novelist, as a challenge to the contemporary world of historical criticism, represented in particular by the theologian Strauß. The test was whether scholars truly had the skills to distinguish fact from fiction. While the hoax provoked controversy at the highest level and led ultimately to the discrediting of its author, this study seeks to accord Meinhold some overdue recognition for successfully crafting his work in such a manner as to deceive his readership, at least for a time. Analysis of Meinhold's use of paratextual elements such as preface, footnotes, intertitles and epilogue to construct the form of an edited text, shows that his method was not without skill. It is argued that, as well as offering a window on the religious debates and cultural sensibilities of its nineteenth-century context, this novel indicates a considerable achievement in literary deception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reading of Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch attempts to magnify the "queer moments," textual and formal, that any reader may (or may not) notice and (re)focus them so that their disruptions come to the fore, thus realigning the relationship between reader and text. Ideally, this reading process will contribute to an understanding of how Kissing the Witch, in conjunction with its reader, can be said to queer fairy tales. This article assumes that once such a reading is produced, it becomes easier to produce, if not more difficult to avoid, similar readings of Kissing the Witch's intertexts and, by extension, the fairy-tale genre itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses early modern dramatizations of virgins and pregnant women. The role of crones and witches in early modern drama is also examined. The author explains that these figures present different but connected configurations between women and the natural world. The author states that these figures also reflect attempts by patriarchs to contain, control, and understand female power. The article explores the reasons why women are predominantly the vessels that evil beings choose to possess. Representations of the biblical character of Eve are also examined.

In Shakespeare's plays, most notably A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth, the supernatural world provides a means to discuss desire, a force both uncanny and inescapable. In the modern fantasy genre, the liminal world of the fairies and witches becomes just as essential, and the question of human versus super-human experience takes center stage. Terry Pratchett's invocation of Shakespeare in the Discworld series, particularly in the novels Wyrd Sisters and Lords and Ladies, which rewrite Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream respectively, allows for an exploration of the ambivalent relationship between desire, enchantment, and human free will. In these novels, Pratchett suggests that while desire is an unavoidable, powerful, and ambivalent part of life, with all attendant dangers and strengths, the heart of successful magical thinking lies in human response and choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the use of magic in Scandinavian literature, especially as used in the "Íslendingasögur." The article argues that whether the magic has any basis in reality or not, it is used in the fictional sense in this text for a literary purpose and not for the purpose of documenting pagan religious rituals. The article also focuses on the use of magic by women and suggests that it was used to address issues of gender, honor, power, and society. The article discusses magic and witchcraft and their place in society of the time.

This article investigates the witch's fragmented body in Renaissance demonological literature. The witch's gendered body is the locus of disturbingly obsessive propaganda, religious rhetoric, and sexual fascination. In demonological tracts, the witch, accused of killing and dismembering her victims to serve the devil and to perpetuate evil, is also imagined in bodily pieces. Demonologists and judges examined the body parts of the accused as a means to ascertain guilt; the presence of birthmarks or skin discolorations substantiated claims of sorcery. Theorizing bodily “dis-integration” as an integral part of the mythology and history of witchcraft, this essay compares the witch's grotesque parts to examples of corporeal fragmentation in Old and New Testaments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses real-life practitioners of the occult in Elizabethan and Jacobean times. The article also examines the depiction of the occult practitioners in the theater, specifically the differences between real occultists and their theatrical counterparts. The article cites the book "Malleus Maleficarum," written in the late 15th century by Dominican Inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. The increase in witchcraft trials in the 17th century is also discussed.

Against a background of the feminist appropriation of the witch taking place concurrently in second-wave American, French and West German feminism, the paper examines Sarah Kirsch’s appropriation of the witch as a subversive figure in her poetry cycle Zaubersprüche ( Conjurations, 1973). In subverting the traditional image of the witch, Kirsch establishes a new one: that of a feminist witch and a feminist witch-writer. The witch is both the fictive character created by Kirsch, and her own self-designation; in the latter case, writing, especially writing in the experimental fashion, is a form of witchcraft. The paper analyzes the poems using the theoretical concept of magical realism. Although magical realism is mostly associated with post-colonial studies, it proves to be an apposite mode for feminist studies as well. The magical realist modality contradicts the state-sanctioned aesthetic of socialist realism, a fact that makes Kirsch one of the subversive “GDR-Witches.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the use of horror in 19th century children's literature. The use of horror and fright to teach children morality while educating them about superstitious beliefs is explored. Differences between ghost stories and witch stories are discussed and particular focus is given to social disregard for superstition combined with concerns of children's susceptibility to demonic forces. Differences in the nature of scary stories published in Great Britain and the U.S. are presented. The influence of gothic and fanciful themes in stories including "The Secret Garden," by Frances Hodgson Burnett and "Alice in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll is also discussed. INSET: The Bechtel Experience.

The article argues that the description of witches in Greco-Roman literature offers information on what to look for in the art of witchcraft. It claims that although a perfect relationship between witches in Greco-Roman literature and art is not present, an interplay between literary and artistic crafting of old, witchy women is observable. The early modern artistic depictions of witchcraft in Roman literature is explored. The challenges associated with the identification of old destitute in statuary and old women in terra cotta in relation to witches are highlighted.

Chapter 5 of the book "Arthuriana" is presented. It examines the history of the book "Queen" written by T. H. White in which he attempted to exorcise the presence of his mother in the character of Queen Morgause, a Celtic witch. It discusses the incest theme of the story as well as the amorality of Morgause's character.

Elizabeth Gaskell's fictional representation of the witch trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Lois the Witch, was first published serially in Dickens's All The Year Round in 1859. At the time of the novella's serialisation there appeared alarmist descriptions in the press of the recent Protestant revivals, particularly the unruly behaviour of female revivalists in Ulster. This in turn led to numerous conservative accounts in the periodical press (including All The Year Round) of the role of the hysterical woman throughout history. In Lois, however, with its representation of mass hysteria, Gaskell refutes the widespread Victorian belief that hysteria is “natural” for women, a symptom of their vulnerable bodies and minds. This article examines the significance of Lois the Witch as a powerful comment upon women, politics, and history, as well as a text that dramatically responds to the debates engendered by the events in Ulster in 1859. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analyzes the association between character witches in Patricia McKillip's "In the Forests of Serre." There were a few strategies that were used by McKillip to take her creation beyond archetypes which is where the connection between the character Baba Yaga to Brume came from. Within the book there was also a heavy emphasis on the liminal nature of witches.

Examines the plot and characters in Apuleius' "Metamorphoses." Description of the characters of the witches; Supranatural dimension of urination replete with magical details; Indications of ancient literature.

Points out allusions to Seneca's `Medea' in William Shakespeare's portrayal of Lady Macbeth in the play `Macbeth.' Recapitulation of Medea's revenge on Jason for taking a second wife; Paralellism with Lady Macbeth's reference to wanton destruction of children.

The article discusses critiques of the novel "Ethan Frome," by Edith Wharton. It highlights the essay "The Morality of Inertia," by Lionel Trilling, which explains why such an immoral novel could not be lectured in a boy's school. It also explores the negative interpretation by Elizabeth Ammons of the novel, particularly its character named Zenobia Frome who is regarded as a witch.

Presents a social critique of `I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem,' a novel by Maryse Conde. Reconstruction of the figure of the witch in order build a female Caribbean cultural and historical identity; Novel's function as a way of dealing with and reclaiming an individual and national past; Racism inherent in the white New Englanders' notion of witch.

Identifies some recurring characteristics of women witches in the books `The Ghost Drum,' by Susan Price, `The Earth Witch,' by Louise Lawrence, and `Snow-Eyes,' by Stephanie A. Smith. Witches in epic fantasies; Witches as users of magic; Description of each of the witches in the three books; Mortality.

Discusses English dramatist William Shakespeare's superimposition upon the character of Paulina that of the urban witch in the play 'The Winter's Tale.' Establishment of expectation of an archetypal movement which includes magical invocation; Role of the urban witch as a literary stereotype and a realistic social phenomenon during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The article discusses a curse associated with the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, based on the play's characters of the three witches. The author presents information on the common superstitious belief that productions of "Macbeth" are unlucky and that quotations from the play outside of performances bring a curse upon the individual. Superstitious associations with the play's musical scores, including one by composer Richard Leveridge, are discussed, as well as the theatrical superstitions of 19th-century actress Sarah Bernhardt.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the gender of witches in British author Terry Pratchett's book "Discworld," enchantment and loss in the book "The Lord of the Rings," and mythical archetypes in literature.

The article presents a literary criticism of the play "Macbeth," by the English dramatist William Shakespeare. The author feels that this play, more so than any of the others written by Shakespeare, makes use of espionage and intelligence gathering. Early in the play, the character Macbeth is greeted by several witches who identify him as the future king and they appear later in the play.

The article presents an obituary for British author Terry Pratchett, who wrote the "Discworld" novels, and passed away on March 12, 2015, and also reviews several articles related to Pratchett. The articles reviewed focus on gendered magic in "Discworld" novels, the use of magic by the witches in "Discworld" novels, and gender of witches in the historical imagination of Pratchett's "Discworld."