ENGL3072: Witchcraft, Possession, Magic: Concepts in the Atlantic Supernatural, 1500-1800

Salem is what typically comes to mind when we think of witchcraft, and our class will indeed focus on the 1692 trials and their aftermath. But we will also range more broadly, exploring witchcraft in the early Atlantic world by paying special attention to the roles played by magic and possession. A fundamental aspect of this course, moreover, is its distinction as a literary one. This is not a class about how witchcraft, possession, and magic “change over time” but a class about their representations. From the beginning, we will be deeply attentive to the fact that each and every “evidence” of witchcraft, possession, or magic is an act of representation in the first place. As literary historians, we will movefrom Europe to the Americas, looking at how invocations and accusations of witchcraft traveled between the 16th and late-18th centuries. More importantly, as literary critics we will trace and examine depictions of witchcraft and the idea of the witch across four interrelated socio-historical contexts: the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe; slave medicine and obeah in the Caribbean; possession and the “invisible world” in Puritan Massachusetts; and revivalism in 18th-century New England. By the end of this course, you will be able to: interpret literary texts and understand the literary aspects of historical documents; place literature in relation to its historical and cultural contexts; locate and evaluate relevant scholarship and cultural commentary; and formulate and communicate a focused and stylistically appropriate that supports its claims with textual evidence, especially through close and critical reading.

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