Matters of Witchcraft in Early Modern English Drama
Materiality, Embodiment and Evidence
Matters of Witchcraft in Early Modern English Drama
Materiality, Embodiment and Evidence
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Description
Matters of Witchcraft in Early Modern English Drama explores material culture and its role in shaping ideas about the occult. In focusing on matter and material practice, this edited collection provides a sustained investigation into early moderns' embodied knowledge and sensory experiences as reflected in early modern theatre.
Animal bodies and plant matter, the material force of language, stage properties associated with the performance of witchcraft, source texts, the unseen matter of the occult, material evidence in witchcraft accusations, witches' involvement with domestic products and processes – matter in its many forms reveals itself as crucial to the performance of witchcraft, on and off stage. The essays in this volume use a range of methodological approaches including animal studies and posthumanism, disability studies, queer and feminist studies, premodern critical race studies, book history, and performance studies. Contributors cover fresh approaches to well-known witchcraft plays like Macbeth and The Witch of Edmonton and provide new critical interventions of less-studied plays like Knevet's Rhodon and Iris, Heywood's Wise Woman of Hoxton, and Jones's Adrasta. The collection expands the fields of early modern witchcraft studies and early modern cultural studies in exciting new directions.
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Table of Contents
Molly Hand (Florida State University, USA) and Andrew Loeb (Trent University, Canada)
Part 1: Knowledge and Labour
“Th' ingredience of our cauldron”: Dead Animal Matter in Early Modern Witchcraft Narratives
Keith Botelho (Kennesaw State University, USA)
“Get him in bonds”: Manuscript Conjuring and Labour in The Devil is an Ass
Darryl Chalk (University of Southern Queensland, Australia)
“A Beldam much renown'd”: Poneria's Unnatural Magic in Ralph Knevet's Rhodon and Iris
Kara McCabe (Tufts University, USA)
Part 2: Bodies and Appetites
“Hated like a sickness”: Disease and Disability in The Witch of Edmonton
Katey Roden (Gonzaga University, USA)
Sex, Satan, and Sensation: The Materiality of Bodies in Witchcraft Belief
Hannah Korell (University of Wisconsin Plattville, USA)
“I have supp'd full with horrors”: Witchcraft as Queer Famishment in Shakespeare's Macbeth
Mel Vipperman-Cohen (California State University – Fullerton, USA)
Part 3: Space and Structure
Threshold Witchcraft
Kaitlyn Culliton (Texas A&M University, USA)
Anarchitectural Matter: The Queer Body of the Early Modern Witch
Saraya Haddad (University of Birmingham, UK)
Part 4: Page and Stage
Out of the Mouths of Babes: Exploring the Nature of Child Testimony in The Late Lancashire Witches
Melissa Pullara (Mount Royal University, Canada)
Textual Spectacle and Immaterial Materiality in John Jones's Adrasta
Andrew Loeb (Trent University, Canada)
Why Look at Animal Familiars?
Molly Hand (Florida State University, USA)
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | Nov 12 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | 9781350553279 |
| Imprint | The Arden Shakespeare |
| Illustrations | 4 b/w |
| Series | Arden Studies in Early Modern Drama |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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