"Sorcellerie et Renaissance"

Drawing on literary studies, history, and anthropology, this course explores witchcraft from the Late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. What cultrual dynamic produced the figure of the witch, caught up in the interplay of power and knowledge? Close readings of works by demonologists and their critics offer a lens for examining the making of witchcraft theory as well as its eventual demise. Other topics include the imagination and dreams, violence and the sacred. Special attention will be paid to the methodological challenges facing the scholar of early modern literary studies. Readings in Montaigne, Rabelais, Ronsard, Foucault, and Mauss, among others.