123041 PS PS Literary Studies (2025W)

Remembering witch trials in contemporary culture occurs at the intersections of historical, social, cultural, literary, legal and economic practices and discourses; and the recently growing interest in social history, historical injustice and telling the victims’ stories provides a rich and varied framework within which to analyse the witch trials and their representation(s). This course focuses on the resurgence of interest in the seventeenth-century English witch trials in contemporary fiction, and on what this process of cultural remembrance entails.

While the Salem trials (Massachusetts, USA, 1692-1693) have long featured prominently in popular literature and culture, seventeenth-century English trials have not, in spite of King James I’s famous interest in witchcraft and demonology. But the past decades have shown a particular interest in retelling these stories, as such trials as the Lancashire trials (Pendle, 1612), the Essex trials (Chelmsford, 1645) and the Newcastle trials (1650) have begun to appear in literary works, often by women authors, which tell these stories not only from a historical perspective, but by fictionalising, appropriating and reclaiming the narrative. In addition to these literary resurrections, the English witch trials appear on screen, too, in more or less prominent storylines. These representations raise questions that we will explore together throughout the semester, of the construction of history and of how to deal with the figure of the witch itself, revealing contemporary societal, political and cultural concerns.

In this course, participants will gain a knowledge of the early seventeenth century historical, political and religious context, discover a range of contemporary texts, and acquire an understanding of how fiction interacts with and responds to significant historical and cultural contexts through the study of a variety of authors and texts. The course will also enable participants to develop their practical skills in the critical analysis of literary texts, and will tackle the basic techniques of academic writing, such as how to structure and write a paper.