Witches and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe

(7.5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module will investigate the ways in which the 'witch' became a culturally significant figure in continental Europe between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, the object of intense legal, religious, political and cultural scrutiny and debate. Drawing on material from Germany, France, Italy and England the course will explain how and why the early modern period witnessed a 'witchcraze', a period of unprecedented persecution. It will ask how ideas about witchcraft and magic were shaped by the religious, social and political upheavals of the period. Throughout, it will draw on a wide variety of primary source material, both textual and visual.