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Trade Review
'Marion Gibson is one of the nation's finest scholars of the literature of witchcraft, in the broadest sense, and this book represents a crown to the decades of research and authorship which have won her that distinction. Like all she has done before, it is original, accessible, and has a wonderfully wide sweep.'
Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol, UK
'Marion Gibson offers an outstanding introduction to witchcraft and to the texts that have created and shaped our understanding of witchcraft over time. She deftly unpacks early modern demonologies and trial records, as well as plays and poetry, providing expert guidance on how to read these sources and decipher the depictions of witchcraft they convey. She also examines trends in modern scholarship and in modern popular culture that have shaped and reshaped the notion of what a witch could be. This book offers a truly interdisciplinary blend of history, literature, and cultural studies.'
Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University, USA
"This is an excellent introduction to witchcraft studies."
Dawn Hutchinson, Christopher Newport University
Table of Contents
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
