Course Outline
Week 1: Medieval Origins
Monday, March 28: Course Introduction
Wednesday, March 30: Magic in the Middle Ages
Read for discussion in class: Traces of Non-Christian Religious Practice in Medieval Pentitentials and William of Malmesbury, The Sorceress of Berkeley [Canvas].
Week 2: First Persecutions
Monday, April 4: The Formation of a Persecuting Society?
Read for discussion in class: excerpts from the Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215); Oldridge, chapters 1, 2 & 3
Wednesday, April 6: The Formation of a Learned Stereotype
Read for discussion in class: Ralph of Coggeshall, The Heretics of Rheims (1176-1180) [Canvas], Pope Gregory IX, Vox in Rama (1233) [Canvas], and Johannes Nider, The Formicarius (1435-1438) [Canvas].
Week 3: Intellectual and Legal Foundations
Monday, April 11: The Hammer of Witches
Read for discussion in class: excerpts from The Hammer of Witches (1487); Oldridge, chapter 4
Wednesday, April 13: What Was Inquisition?
Read for discussion in class: excerpts from The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (1532) [Canvas]
Week 4: Witches and Popular Culture (I)
Monday, April 18: Inversion, Misrule, and Witchcraft
Read for discussion in class: Oldridge, chapters 9, 11, and 13
Wednesday, April 20: Seasons, Magic, and Witches
Read for discusison in class: Wolfgang Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, chapters 1-11
Week 5: Witches and Popular Culture (II)
Monday, April 25: High Culture and Low
Read for discussion: Wolfgang Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, chapters 12-20
Wednesday, April 27: Midterm examination
Week 6: The Projection of Evil
Monday, May 2: Witchcraft Prosecution and Confessionalism
Read for discussion in class: Oldridge, chapters 14, 15, and 20
Wednesday, May 4: Witches as Neighbors
Read for discussion in class: The Trial of Tempel Anneke, pp. 3-65
Paper prospectus due in class and online
Week 7: The Gender Politics of Witchcraft Prosecution
Monday, May 9: Witchcraft and Gender
Read for discussion in class: Read for discussion in class: The Trial of Tempel Anneke, pp. 66-157
Wednesday, May 11: A Crisis of Gender Relations?
Read for discussion in class: Oldridge, chapters 25, 26, and 28
Week 8: Witchcraft and the Early Modern State
Monday, May 16: A Crisis of Social Disciplining?
Read for discussion in class: Oldridge, chapters 17, 18, and 19
Wednesday, May 18: If Not the State—What?
Read for discussion in class: James Sharpe, The Bewitching of Anne Gunter; chapters 1-4; Oldridge, chapters 5
Week 9: The Experience of Possession
Monday, May 23: Witches and Neighbors
Read for discussion in class: James Sharpe, The Bewitching of Anne Gunter; chapters 5-9
Wednesday, May 25: Witches in America: Salem, 1692
Week 10: The End of Witchcraft Prosecution
Monday, May 30: Film: Innocence Lost: The Plea (1997)
Wednesday, June 1: Why Did the Prosecutions End?