The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations [Paperback]

Diane Purkiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0415087627 | ISBN-13: 978-0415087629 | Edition: First

'Diane Purkiss ... insists on taking witches seriously. Her refusal to write witch-believers off as unenlightened has produced some richly intelligent meditations on their -- and our -- world.' - The Observer

'An invigorating and challenging book ... sets many hares running.' - The Times Higher Education Supplement

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ms. Purkiss..has interesting things to say about contemporary witchcraft and some striking if idiosyncratic comments about earlier (mainly fifteenth-and sixteenth century) material...Her [Purkiss's] analysis of the contemporary witchcraft movement, like her analysis of their myths, though generally critical, is occasionally and almost reluctantly admiring..
– The New York Review of Books, October 1997

The author has an impressive ... grasp of literary, philosophical, psychological, and ethnological sources and their relevance to women.
–Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

About the Author

Diane Purkiss is a Lecturer in English at the University of Reading.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; First edition (October 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415087627
• ISBN-13: 978-0415087629
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #615,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I disagree, April 13, 2004

By 

"stapherd" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations (Hardcover)

The reader before me seems to have missed the point of Purkiss's work. To "not be a fan of feminist criticism" and then to portray this text as an appeal to reductive notions of patriarchal oppression seems a contradiction in terms, and more to the point, it sells the book short.

Purkiss's work is extraordinary because it is NOT reductive, nor is it a positivist indictment of less "enlightened" times, as she states explicitly. Purkiss uses primary sources to understand the intricate religious, social, and judicial forces which shaped the persecution of "witches". She unfolds the complexity of witch categories (not limited to the fringes of society) and persecution (not limited to the hands of men) while at the same time exploring early modern male discomfort with the female body and related tropes of misogyny. Incidentally, Umberto Eco does much of the same in his deeply researched novels, vis-a-vis heretics. Purkiss's book succeeds in breaking sorely needed middle ground between unsympathetic historical accuracy and freewheeling radical feminist and Wiccan appetites for the experience of the witch-figure.

The main shortcoming of Purkiss's work is an overreliance on exclusively British source material, especially in the book's specialized final chapters, leaving the Continental Inquisition out of the picture to a large extent. Nonetheless, Purkiss's important contribution here is the theoretical headway which broader scholarship will no doubt find useful.

15 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms.Purkiss research refutes "popular" witchcraft history, January 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations (Paperback)

This book affirmed for me that the history of women and witchcraft should be told from a disciplines perspective, as well as by someone who has researched the social history of the era. Ms. Purkiss refutes such "popular"& "New Age" researchers, whose evidence/research are in question. Starhawk, Barbara G. Walker, Barbara Ehrenreich, among others wrongly paint a portrait of the witch in history. Ms.Purkiss helped me regain my path of knowledge after being led astray-she did it so conclusively that I could not regain my composure for days. Thank goodness there are people like her out there, or women's history in Western Civilization could get out of hand with lies and media stereotypes.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eh..., May 25, 2007

By 

Robin Sena "Little Wiccan" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations (Paperback)

I've only read about the first 5 chapters but this what I gather from the book as a whole. While very informative and attention grabbing and different it to me should have (1) a different title. When I picked up the book I thought it would have more on the practices of the craft anf how the ideaology and practitioners have changed. I was wrong (from what I have read). It foucuses more on the events and people surrounding witches rather than the witch themselves.

secondly I thought it seemed like a research paper. Actually, several. Each chapter begins with the idea and after a few pages the ideas seem to repeat and are represented by quotes or poems or any other work that is then cited at the end of the chapter.

However despite these complaints the book is - as I said - a good read and while not addressing the witch persay it does present views I never would have thought of.

A really good book to read. I would not suggest buying it...but then again I don't read history books multiple times.