Mapping early modern English witchcraft: A study of pamphlet, treatise, and drama

The dissertation examines the explosion of early modern English writing on witchcraft that occurred roughly between 1550-1700, focusing on witchcraft trial pamphlets, treatises, and the drama of John Webster. The dissertation investigates the parallels between the early modern interest in witchcraft, the late seventeenth-century birth of sociology, and the passion for cultural and social mapping that swept England during the period. The dissertation argues that while the pamphlet and treatise literature of witchcraft claim to be purely descriptive, these forms in fact invent what they supposedly discover. The writing of such literature is spurred by a desire to know and define oneself, the surrounding world, and one\u27s place in it, and is undertaken because of something that triggers uncertainty about once-certain beliefs. As such, the witchcraft found in the pamphlets and treatises is a tool used to define the culture. It is therefore tightly controlled by that culture rather than a true threat to it. Ironically, it is the metaphorical witchcraft found in John Webster\u27s The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi that embodies the unfettered power of creation hinted at in the pamphlets, treatises, and other, more explicit witchcraft plays. In the context of all three types of literature, the dissertation examines witchcraft in its physical (text and body), social, and philosophical embodiments, emphasizing the role these embodiments play in the rapid change of early modern English culture. The methodology combines anthropological, post-structuralist and feminist strategies, which offer access to the literature of witchcraft as it documents the struggle to understand and especially to control the massive intellectual, social, economic, religious, and political shifts in early modern England