Rewriting the Salem Witchcraft Trials in Contemporary Popular Literature

The Salem Witchcraft Trials (1692) have received a lot of attention from history and literature, although there are very few critical analysis of how this historical event has entered the literary field. Many works of historical fiction – considered the most suitable literary genre to talk about an historical event - have used it in their storylines; however, popular genres such as romance, crime fiction, fantasy and science fiction have also shown an interest in this witch hunt. The main reason for this interest can be found in the lack of final conclusions as regards what really happened in Salem. The main objective of this paper is to show how what happened in Salem has entered contemporary popular fiction with the aim of showing the interest that it still arises and to vindicate the production of more critical works about the literary construction of one of the events that most dramatically has affected the configuration of the American mind