Malevolent Nurture: Witch-hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern EnglandCornell University Press, 1995 - 264 pagini Why were women far more likely than men to be executed for witchcraft in the early modern period? Questioning approaches that focus narrowly on the male role in witch-hunting in England and Scotland, Deborah Willis examines the fact that women were also frequently the accusers.Willis draws on the strengths of feminist, new historicist, and psychoanalytic criticism and on such primary sources as legal documents, pamphlet literature, religious tracts, and stage plays. Both the witch and her female accuser, Willis concludes, were engaged in a complex, intricate struggle for survival and empowerment in a patriarchal culture, and they stood in uneasy relation to definitions of female identity that rewarded nurturing behavior.Malevolent Nurture disentangles popular images of the witch from those endorsed by male elites. Among villagers, the witch was most typically imagined as a malevolent mother, while elites preferred to view her as a betraying servant of Satan. Analyzing King James VI and I's involvement in the North Berwick witchcraft trials, Willis shows how his elite atittudes were nevertheless influenced by his relationships with his brith mother, Mary Queen of Scots, and another maternal figure, Queen Elizabeth I.Willis also shows that Shakespeare, in Richard III, Macbeth, and Henry VI, and other middle-class playwrights incorporated the beliefs of the ruling class and villagers alike in their representations of witches. |
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... wife asserted author- ity over subordinates , issuing her own commands and demanding obedi- ence . But the habits of a mother and domestic manager were in many ways opposed to those a husband was supposed to expect from a wife . Women ...
... wife , she asked her spirit Lierd to kill their livestock , but her other spirit , Suckin , took it upon himself to " plague " Byatt's wife to death . “ I know that Byatt and his wife have wronged thee greatly , ” he told his mis- tress ...
... wife , the other resembling his mother . Samuel himself seems fearful and indecisive . His wife shows little personal sympathy for him , though she is ostensibly on his side ; her concern is for the death of her hens . Although the ...
Cuprins
TWO UnNeighborly Nurture | 27 |
THREE Rewriting the Witch | 83 |
FOUR James among the WitchHunters | 117 |
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Alte ediții - Afișează-le pe toate
Malevolent Nurture: Witch-hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England Deborah Willis Previzualizare limitată - 1995 |
Malevolent Nurture: Witch-hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England Deborah Willis Previzualizare limitată - 1995 |
Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England Deborah Willis Previzualizare limitată - 2018 |