123250 AR Literature Course - 1/2 (MA) American/North American & Cultural Studies (2023W)

Aims:
* students know about the historical contexts of early modern witchhunts through a transnational, transatlantic perspective, comparing and connecting Austrian / Alpine witch trials with New England's
* students are able to critically read primary literature through the lens of theoretical and historical theories
* students understand different discourses surrounding the concept of witchcraft
* students are able to criticall reflect on the public discourse about and (lack of) commemoration of early modern femicide

This course commemorates the first femicide in the Atlantic world, i.e. the witchhunts which predominantly attacked women and their social and medical agencies. In an age in which femicide and the patriarchal policing of female bodies are an issue on both sides of the Atlantic yet again, and right-wing evocations of "witch-hunts" (e.g. by Donald Trump) perform the patriarchal trick of victim-perpetrator-reversal, the course aims to examine the discourse of witchcraft from an epistemological (science vs. magic in colonial and gendered contexts) as well as, with Silvia Federici, economic and body studies/ecofeminist angle. It is conducted mainly through an excursion to Golling (Salzburg), where we will connect local Austrian/Alpine witchhunts to its transantlantic counterpart. In our readings of primary material, which is presented by the students in short presentations, we will start with original texts from late 17th-century New England (writings by Puritan ministers; trial protocols) and move on to 19th-century short stories (e.g. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown") and 20th- and 21st-century drama and poetry as well as film, television, and music.

Methods: reading, discussions (in teams, groups, and plenary), guest lectures, student presentations, excursions