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Witch Fulfillment: Adaptation Dramaturgy and Casting the Witch for Stage and Screen addresses the Witch as a theatrical type on twenty-first-century-North American stages and screens, seen through the lenses of casting, design, and adaptation, with attention paid to why these patterns persist, and what wishes they fulfil.Witch Fulfillment examines the Witch in performance, considering how actors embody iconic roles designated as witches (casting), and how dramaturgical choices (adaptation) heighten their witchy power. Through analysis of Witch characters ranging from Elphaba to Medea, classic plays such as The Crucible and Macbeth, feminist adaptations - including Sycorax, Obeah Opera, and Jen Silverman's Witch - and popular culture offerings, like the Scarlet Witch and Jinkx Monsoon, this book examines the dramaturgical meanings of adapting and embodying witchy roles in the twenty-first century.This book contends that the Witch represents a crucial category of analysis for inclusive theatre and performance and will be of interest to theatre practitioners and designers, along with theatre, witchcraft, and occult studies scholars.

Women, Magic, Wisdom: Explore a Japanese myth through the words and images of key scholars and artists.Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that produces such an enigmatic figure? And why does she still call to us in this modern, scientific era? Co-editors Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich first met the yamamba in the powerful short story “The Smile of the Mountain Witch” by acclaimed woman writer Ōba Minako. The story revealed the compelling way creative women can take charge of misogynistic tropes, invert them, and use them to tell new stories of female empowerment.This unique collection represents the creative and surprising ways artists and scholars from North America and Japan have encountered the yamamba.

Mountain Witches is a comprehensive guide to the complex figure of yamauba—female yōkai often translated as mountain witches, who are commonly described as tall, enigmatic women with long hair, piercing eyes, and large mouths that open from ear to ear and who live in the mountains—and the evolution of their roles and significance in Japanese culture and society from the premodern era to the present. In recent years yamauba have attracted much attention among scholars of women's literature as women unconstrained by conformative norms or social expectations, but this is the first book to demonstrate how these figures contribute to folklore, Japanese studies, cultural studies, and gender studies. Situating the yamauba within the construct of yōkai and archetypes, Noriko T. Reider investigates the yamauba attributes through the examination of narratives including folktales, literary works, legends, modern fiction, manga, and anime. She traces the lineage of a yamauba image from the seventh-century text Kojiki to the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, and explores its emergence as well as its various, often conflicting, characteristics. Reider also examines the adaptation and re-creation of the prototype in diverse media such as modern fiction, film, manga, anime, and fashion in relation to the changing status of women in Japanese society. Offering a comprehensive overview of the development of the yamauba as a literary and mythic trope, Mountain Witches is a study of an archetype that endures in Japanese media and folklore. It will be valuable to students, scholars, and the general reader interested in folklore, Japanese literature, demonology, history, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, and the visual and performing arts.

La misma oscuridad en todas las hogueras es una introducción al universo intertextual de la narrativa del escritor colombiano Pedro Gómez Valderrama (Bucaramanga, 1923 - Bogotá, 1992), recopilada en la antología Cuentos completos (reeditados por Ediciones Uniandes en el 2016 con el título Más arriba del Reino). Dichos relatos trazan rutas geográficas e históricas precisas. Parten de la Europa medieval, pasan por el descubrimiento de América y arriban a Tolú, capital de la brujería, situada a corta distancia de Cartagena. Este recorrido está marcado por acontecimientos puntuales, no obstante, los ensayos y las narraciones iluminan tanto épocas anteriores como el momento presente de la escritura y de la lectura. De esta forma la literatura se convierte, para Pedro Gómez Valderrama, en una catacresis metafórica que cubre los vacíos de la historia oficial ortodoxa. Esta herramienta le permite al humanista documentar el devenir ideológico de la Europa medieval, su persistencia en los siglos XVI y XVII y sus repercusiones hasta el presente en las colonias americanas.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Winner of the 2019 Warburg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities for an outstanding work of literary history This is a study of the representation of witches in early modern English drama, organised around the themes of scepticism and belief. It covers the entire early modern period, including the Restoration, and pays particular attention to three plays in which witchcraft is central: The Witch of Edmonton (1621), The Late Lancashire Witches (1634) and The Lancashire Witches (1681). Always a controversial issue, witchcraft has traditionally been seen in terms of a debate between ‘sceptics'and ‘believers'. This book argues instead that, while the concepts of scepticism and belief are central to an understanding of early modern witchcraft, they are more fruitfully understood not as static and mutually exclusive positions within the witchcraft debate, but as rhetorical tools used by both sides.

In The Other in the School Stories: A Phenomenon in British Children's Literature Ulrike Pesold examines the portrayal of class, gender, race and ethnicity in selected school stories and shows how the treatment of the Other develops over a period of a century and a half. The study also highlights the transition from the traditional school story to the witch school story that by now has become a subgenre of its own.The school stories that are analysed include selected works by Thomas Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling.

Canidia is one of the most well-attested witches in Latin literature. She appears in no fewer than six of Horace's poems, three of which she has a prominent role in. Throughout Horace's Epodes and Satires she perpetrates acts of grave desecration, kidnapping, murder, magical torture and poisoning. She invades the gardens of Horace's literary patron Maecenas, rips apart a lamb with her teeth, starves a Roman child to death, and threatens to unnaturally prolong Horace's life to keep him in a state of perpetual torment. She can be seen as an anti-muse: Horace repeatedly sets her in opposition to his literary patron, casts her as the personification of his iambic poetry, and gives her the surprising honor of concluding not only his Epodes but also his second book of Satires. This volume is the first comprehensive treatment of Canidia. It offers translations of each of the three poems which feature Canidia as a main character as well as the relevant portions from the other three poems in which Canidia plays a minor role. These translations are accompanied by extensive analysis of Canidia's part in each piece that takes into account not only the poems'literary contexts but their magico-religious details.

Der Untersuchung liegen Hexenszenen und magische Ritualschilderungen in Schlüsseltexten aus der hellenistisch-alexandrinischen Epoche bis in die julisch-claudische Kaiserzeit zugrunde: Dabei schlägt das Buch die Brücke zwischen den Begebenheiten realer antiker Magiepraxis und der literarischen Darstellung durch die Dichter. Zur Untersuchung einer jeden Zauberszene gehört deswegen die grundsätzliche Erklärung des magischen Motivschatzes – z. B. von Zauberarten, -prinzipien, -termini und Ingredienzien –, eine sorgfältige Analyse des rituellen Prozederes in seinen einzelnen Schritten, eine Gegenüberstellung mit den griechischsprachigen Zauberpapyri als fassbarer Realienquelle für antike Zauberrituale sowie eine ausgiebige Deutung des magischen Geschehens unter Beachtung der Funktion der Magie im jeweiligen literarischen Werk. Die erzielten Ergebnisse fügen sich dabei zu einem stimmigen Urteil über die Entstehung und Veränderung der antiken Zauberszene und des Hexenbildes, ja lassen dabei eine zunehmend fiktionalisierte und immer stärker gewertete Darstellungsweise des Magischen durch die Dichter erkennen. Eine stilistisch ansprechende Übersetzung und eine dem übergeordneten Verständnis dienende gliedernde Inhaltsangabe ist einer jeden Zauberszene beigegeben.

Have you ever wanted to track Bigfoot? Slay a dragon? Introduce yourself to a vampire? From the writer of Gods and Goddesses, Monsters and Creatures delves into the legends of some of the world's best known and most bizarre beasts and ghastly creations, revealing the facts and the fictions. Explore the real-life origins of some of the strangest creatures ever encountered in the murky depths, in enchanted forests – and even one or two who could be lurking under your bed. Discover the real werewolves of medieval Europe, glimpse the magical history of the famed unicorn and encounter the terrifying bloodsucking dogs of Mexico. All these and more are found within the pages of Monsters and Creatures. More than a bestiary, this carefully researched book documents the mythologies, sightings and origins of over 100 weird and wonderful beasties from every continent and every time period, including modern monsters stalking us today. All of these creatures have inspired films, books, scientific research, poems and music, as well as our collective dreams and nightmares. It's time to come meet them and find out the amazing true stories behind these legendary mythical beasts.

For centuries, the figure of the witch represented the hostile and feared “other” on the edge of human society, placed “in between” the world of people and the world of demons. Whether she stood for the untamed powers of nature, dark powers of knowledge or magic, or evil powers derived from the devil, she was always identified with fear as a disturbance, as a danger to the order of society and to the well-being of those who understood themselves as settled within the borders of the patriarchal order and its psychological and sexual corselet. In this role, the witch appeared in numerous literary works, including, among others, writings by Chaucer, Shakespeare and Middleton.However, since the 1840s, the image of the witch has undergone enormous transformations, mainly due to the influence of various matriarchate theories and of feminist ideas. The witch, reclaimed by women for women, became an identification figure and representative of their expectations, fears, hopes and claims.This study investigates examples of witches in publications by contemporary British women writers to see how this figure is perceived, related to, and utilised in their respective texts. Iris Murdoch, Jeanette Winterson, Angela Carter and Fay Weldon, among others, refer consistently to this witch figure, whom they interpret in various creative and surprising ways, adopting innovative approaches to this comparably ancient figure.

Die Walpurgisnacht, die Nacht vom 30. April auf den 1. Mai, ist nach volkstümlicher Vorstellung das einschlägige Datum für die Zusammenkunft von Geistern und Hexen. Während der Hexenverfolgungen galt die Teilnahme am vermeintlichen Hexenkonvent als wichtiges Indiz für das Crimen magiae, das Zaubereiverbrechen. Doch darüber hinaus wurde die Walpurgisnacht mit der Zeit ein verbreitetes kulturelles Thema. Literarisch bekannt geworden ist sie vor allem durch Goethes Faust-Dichtung. Die Studie erschließt in der deutschsprachigen Dichtung von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart die Stoff- und Motivgeschichte der Walpurgisnacht und der sich zumeist in dieser Nacht ereignenden Geister- und Hexenversammlung.

'Eine Hexe sollst du nicht am Leben lassen.'Exodus 22,17In wenigen Gebieten der Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften hat sich in den letzten Jahren so viel bewegt und so viel verändert wie in der Hexenforschung.Zahlreiche Annahmen des'Schulbuchwissens'wurden durch genaue Analyse der Quellen und der territorialgeschichtlichen Hintergründe widerlegt. Das Bild ist vor allem zeitlich und räumlich viel differenzierter geworden. Warum waren bestimmte Gebiete verfolgungsintensiv, während Nachbarterritorien verfolgungsfrei blieben? Wie ist das Verhältnis Frauen und Männer unter den Opfern? Waren'Hexen'Trägerinnen eines vorchristlichen Kultes? Gingen die Verfolgungen von'oben'oder von'unten'in der Gesellschaft aus? Wie kam es zur Überwindung des Hexenglaubens? Die außereuropäische Ethnologie hat erkennen müssen, in wie hohem Umfang das Thema der Hexereiverdächtigungen auch in anderen Kulturen und bis in die unmittelbare Gegenwart präsent ist. Einige der massivsten Hexenverfolgungen haben weitab des abendländischen Kulturraumes stattgefunden. Der vorliegende Band trägt diesen neuen Forschungsergebnissen Rechnung und widerlegt viele Klischees. Dabei kommen nicht nur die grausigen und schmerzvollen Details der Verfolgungsgeschichte und das schwüle und üppige Bild gesellschaftlicher Hexensabbatfantasien, sondern auch das Umkippen des Hexenpradigmas im 20. und 21. Jhdt. zur Sprache. Wie wurde aus der'bösen Hexe'der europäischen Tradition die'gute Hexe'der ökofeministischen Esoterikszene und der Wiccabewegung? Vor allem: warum wurde die Hexe zur Identifikationsfigur? Wie steht es mit der antiken Vorgeschichte des Glaubens an Hexerei? Hexen. Eine kulturgeschichtliche Analyse orientiert facettenreich und auf neuestem Forschungsstand über das Thema aus einem globalen Blickwinkel, und bietet manche Überraschungen. Ergänzt wird der Band durch einige Quellentexte.

In an exciting new approach to witchcraft studies, The Witch in the Western Imagination examines the visual representation of witches in early modern Europe. With vibrant and lucid prose, Lyndal Roper moves away from the typical witchcraft studies on trials, beliefs, and communal dynamics and instead considers the witch as a symbolic and malleable figure through a broad sweep of topics and time periods.Employing a wide selection of archival, literary, and visual materials, Roper presents a series of thematic studies that range from the role of emotions in Renaissance culture to demonology as entertainment, and from witchcraft as female embodiment to the clash of cultures on the brink of the Enlightenment. Rather than providing a vast synthesis or survey, this book is questioning and exploratory in nature and illuminates our understanding of the mental and psychic worlds of people in premodern Europe.Roper's spectrum of theoretical interests will engage readers interested in cultural history, psychoanalytic theory, feminist theory, art history, and early modern European studies. These essays, three of which appear here for the first time in print, are complemented by more than forty images, from iconic paintings to marginal drawings on murals or picture frames. In her unique focus on the imagery of witchcraft, Lyndal Roper has succeeded in adding a compelling new dimension to the study of witchcraft in early modern Europe.

Hexenromane gab es schon früher. Doch seit den 1970er Jahren treten sie vermehrt auch in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur auf. Der Grund: Nicht mehr der jugendliche Held, die jugendliche Heldin stehen im Vordergrund des Geschehens, sondern Personen aus dem Volk, die wirklich gelebt haben und auf Grund der Glaubensvorstellungen der Menschen im 15. bis 18. Jahrhundert an den Pranger gestellt wurden. Wie kam es zu ihrer Verfolgung und was können wir heute noch daraus lernen? Welchen Anteil haben die «neue» Frauenbewegung und Harry Potter an der Wiederbelebung der Hexen im kulturellen Gedächtnis und welche Klischees sind dabei entstanden? Inwieweit bieten neuere historische Forschungen einen Ausweg aus dem Dilemma? Und schließlich: Worauf beruht der Wandel der Figur der Hexe, die sich in der neueren Kinder- und Jugendliteratur ganz anders als früher darstellt?

Witches peek from greeting cards and advertisements, and they dig twisted roots from the ground. Witches dance beneath the stars and lurk around cauldrons. Witches heal, witches scare, witches creep, and witches teach! A compendium of witches through the ages, from earliest prehistory to some of the most significant modern practitioners, The Weiser Field Guide to Witches explores who and what is a witch. From such famed historical legends as Aleister Crowley, Marie Laveau and Elizabeth Bathory to the popular literary and cinematic figures Harry Potter and The Wicked Witch of the West, Illes offers a complete range of the history of witches. Included also are the sacred—Isis, Hekate, Aradia—and the profane—the Salem Witch trials and The Burning Times. The Weiser Field Guide to Witches is appropriate for readers of all ages and serves as an excellent and entertaining introduction for those fascinated by the topic.

This book analyzes the gendered transformation of magical figures occurring in Arthurian romance in England from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. In the earlier texts, magic is predominantly a masculine pursuit, garnering its user prestige and power, but in the later texts, magic becomes a primarily feminine activity, one that marks its user as wicked and heretical. This project explores both the literary and the social motivations for this transformation, seeking an answer to the question,'why did the witch become wicked?'Heidi Breuer traverses both the medieval and early modern periods and considers the way in which the representation of literary witches interacted with the culture at large, ultimately arguing that a series of economic crises in the fourteenth century created a labour shortage met by women. As women moved into the previously male-dominated economy, literary backlash came in the form of the witch, and social backlash followed soon after in the form of Renaissance witch-hunting. The witch figure serves a similar function in modern American culture because late-industrial capitalism challenges gender conventions in similar ways as the economic crises of the medieval period.

The Weird Sisters, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, are arguably the most famous trio of witches in English literature. Shakespeare's Weird Sisters are a complex trinitarian mythological construction – a unique amalgamation of classical, folkloric, and socio-political elements. This book is an archetypal exploration of the Weird Sisters; by examining this feminine trio through the lens of mythology, new insights about their significance may be understood. The ramifications extend from classical comprehension to twenty-first century pop culture observations related to female trios.