Male itches in early modern Europe [Paperback]

This is the first ever full book on the subject of male witches addressing incidents of witch-hunting in both Britain and Europe.



Uses feminist categories of gender analysis to critique the feminist agenda that mars many studies. Advances a more bal. Critiques historians' assumptions about witch-hunting, challenging the marginalisation of male witches by feminist and other historians. Shows that large numbers of men were accused of witchcraft in their own right, in some regions, more men were accused than women. It uses feminist categories of gender analysis to challenge recent arguments and current orthodoxies providing a more balanced and complex view of witch-hunting and ideas about witches in their gendered forms than has hitherto been available.

Preface and acknowledgements

List of figures

Introduction

1. Invisible men: The historian and the male witch

2. Secondary targets? Male witches on trial

3. Tortured confessions: Agency and selfhood at stake

4. Literally unthinkable? Demonological descriptions of male witches

5. Conceptual webs: The gendering of witchcraft

Conclusion and afterword

Appendix

Figures

Bibliography

Index

Lara Apps is Graduate Student Ombudsperson at the University of Alberta, where she received a Master's degree in History in 2000

Andrew Gow is Professor of History at the University of Alberta