Witchcraft

Witchcraft: The Basics is an engaging introduction to the scholarly study of witchcraft. It explores the phenomenon of witchcraft from its earliest definitions in the Middle Ages through to the modern day, and uses case studies to analyse the roles of culture, religion, gender, social hierarchy, governance and more in witchcraft throughout history.

Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at Exeter University and works on witches, magic, paganism and the supernatural in literature. Her previous publications include: Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft (2017), Imagining the Pagan Past (2013), Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity co-edited with Shelley Trower and Garry Tregidga (2012), Witchcraft Myths in American Culture (2007), Possession, Puritanism and Print: Darrell, Harsnett, Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Exorcism Controversy (2006) and Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches (1999).

Introduction; Chapter One The early modern context: a case study of early modern Britain; Chapter Two The seventeenth and early eighteenth century context: America as the major case study; Chapter Three Witchcraft in early modern literature: "the witchcraft renaissance"; Chapter Four Witchcraft Studies; Chapter Five Witchcraft Today: Religious Redefinitions; Chapter Six Reinventing the good witch; Further Study Reading List; Index