Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England

by Deborah Willis

Overview

In Malevolent Nurture, Deborah Willis explores the dynamics of witchcraft accusation through legal documents, pamphlet literature, religious tracts, and the plays of Shakespeare.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801430046
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	11/02/1995
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Deborah Willis is Associate Professor of English at University of California, Riverside

Editorial Reviews

Very well and clearly written and thoroughly researched.

Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England - Carole Levin

Another issue insufficiently considered in the intersection of witch-hunting and gender is that women were more likely than men to be accusers. Literary historian Deborah Willis seeks to redress this oversight.... Willis is critical of studies that represent witch-hunts as 'all-male' and 'univocally misogynist'; she takes issue with the 'widely held feminist view that assigns the women accused of witchcraft the role of rebellious proto-feminists and the female accusers to that of patriarchal conformists'.... She examines the threat of the witch to order on several social levels: peasent, gentry, and aristocratic.

Kenneth P. Minkema

Another issue insufficiently considered in the intersection of witch-hunting and gender is that women were more likely than men to be accusers. Literary historian Deborah Willis seeks to redress this oversight.... Willis is critical of studies that represent witch-hunts as 'all-male' and 'univocally misogynist'; she takes issue with the 'widely held feminist view that assigns the women accused of witchcraft the role of rebellious proto-feminists and the female accusers to that of patriarchal conformists'.... She examines the threat of the witch to order on several social levels: peasent, gentry, and aristocratic.

--Kenneth P. Minkema "Religious Studies Review"

Very well and clearly written and thoroughly researched.

--Carole Levin "Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England"

From the Publisher