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Witchcraft and Magic in Culture

Module description

This optional module introduces you to the themes of witchcraft and magic in British and American literature and history, exploring what the supernatural means in culture. It begins with medieval and early modern texts, establishing the historical roots of the subject in Western European demonology and British poetic literature. You will examine classic witchcraft short stories, drama and poetry from the mid-19th century to the late 20th drawing on the Salem episode and exploring transatlantic and east coast American identities including WASP and Jewish perspectives. You will also examine more recent “writing back” to witchcraft episodes, including African-Caribbean, Canadian, queering, Black British and feminist perspectives. The final section of the module focuses on contemporary popular cultures, exploring witchcraft in children’s literature, “chick lit”, filmic adaptation and TV drama.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to give you insight into a cultural topic which recurs across fiction and film, from the major works of Renaissance literature by Shakespeare and Marlowe, through modern classics such as The Crucible to contemporary cult film, children’s literature and TV. An understanding of the significance and appeal of the supernatural in literature is an asset - aspects of the module’s coverage have in the past been drawn upon by students who have progressed into careers in teaching, heritage, bookselling, publishing and into postgraduate work. The module is strongly research-led, with opportunities to engage with texts researched and written about by Professor Gibson in the fields of historical and literary scholarship.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. demonstrate an advanced critical understanding of the literature and cultural history of witchcraft and magic and an advanced ability to engage with concepts such as gender, identity and the uses of fantasy
• 2. demonstrate an advanced capacity to place witchcraft and magic in literature in the context of social and cultural events (e.g., the legal history of prosecutions, religious and feminist movements)

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. demonstrate an advanced ability to analyse the literature theoretically and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context
• 4. demonstrate an advanced ability to interrelate texts and discourses with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. through seminar work and presentations, demonstrate advanced communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups
• 6. through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, such as information retrieval and interpretation, an advanced capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction: Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum and The Blair Witch Project (film)
• William Shakespeare, Macbeth.
• Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus.
• William Shakespeare, The Tempest and selected early modern poetry (John Donne, Edmund Spenser etc)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘Young Goodman Brown’, H. P. Lovecraft 'The Dreams in the Witch House'
• Elizabeth Gaskell, “Lois the Witch”; Arthur Miller, The Crucible
• Selected poems (Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell etc) and John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick
• Maryse Condé, I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem and Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister and selected poems (Margaret Atwood, Anne Sexton, etc)
• Helen Oyeyemi, White is for Witching; Jeanette Winterson, The Daylight Gate
• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, Roald Dahl, The Witches (and film)
• Witchcraft in film and TV: The Witches (1966), The Devils, American Horror Story: Coven, Bewitched TV series and film, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and other texts.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Students who miss their presentation and present acceptable evidence of mitigating circumstances (e.g. serious illness) may give the presentation in a later week during term time, but if they are unable to do so before term ends may submit a 1000 word summary, containing a structured argument and fully-referenced, in lieu of the presentation. This will be assessed using the assessment criteria for essays.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Students are advised to buy:

• William Shakespeare, Macbeth and The Tempest (any scholarly edition – for example, the third series Arden Macbeth, ed. Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason, (London: Bloomsbury 2014) is a good one, but if you have an edition of each play already bring that one)
• Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus (this has an “A” and “B” text. Either is fine, but know which one you have – e.g. the “A” text is available in Abrams and Greenblatt, eds., Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 1, 8th edition, which some of you will have purchased for previous modules)
• Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales, ed. Brian Harding (Oxford, 1987) or another edition containing the story
• H. P. Lovecraft, The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories, ed. S.T. Joshi (Penguin, 2005) or another edition containing the story
• Elizabeth Gaskell, Gothic Tales, ed., Laura Kranzler (Penguin, 2000) or another edition containing the story
• Arthur Miller, The Crucible (any edition, or available in Miller, Plays: One (Methuen, 2009))
• John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick (Knopf, 1984 or any edition)
• Marysé Conde, I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (Ballantine, 1994 or any later edition)
• Kate Pullinger, Weird Sister (McArthur, 1999 or any later edition)
• Helen Oyeyemi, White is for Witching (Picador, 2009 or any edition)
• Jeanette Winterson, The Daylight Gate (Arrow/Hammer, 2012 or any edition)
• Roald Dahl, The Witches (Jonathan Cape, 1983 or any later edition)
• At least one of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.
• Watch the following films: The Witches (1966), The Devils (1971), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), The Crucible (1996), The Witches (1990), Bewitched (2005 film version), Practical Magic (1999) and at least one Harry Potter film. Watch as many witchcraft-related TV series as you can, especially American Horror Story: Coven, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Bewitched.

Key words search

Witchcraft, magic, literature, history, paganism