The twenty‐second Katharine Briggs memorial lecture, November 2003
“By the strength of fancie”: Witchcraft and the early modern imagination
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8931108 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robin Briggs (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 115 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 259-272 |
| Publication date | 2004-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0015587042000284257 |
| OpenAlex | W2032473380 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 10 |
The elite theories of witchcraft in early modern Europe rested on the elaborate imaginary constructs of scholastic theologians, with their implications about a cosmic struggle between good and evil. These were reinforced by a range of popular beliefs and practices, and by the iconography of such artists as Bosch, Grien and Cranach. The imaginary world of witchcraft always tended towards a Manichean dualism that commanded widespread popular support, but aroused doubts among the elites. The fears on which it played, of sterility and dearth, bad mothers, and death, gave it an extraordinary imaginative appeal, which also helps to explain its reappearance in modern literature
Aesthetics · Appeal · Art · Art history · Dualism · Elite · Epistemology · Iconography · Literature · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · The Imaginary · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2020 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |