Witches at Stake: Legacies of a Cultural Icon

Description

Join the biannual French Graduate Conference, hosted by the French program of the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, and listen to presenters from France, the U.S., Canada, and Morocco discussing the figure of the witch in French culture and literature.

From the Malleus Maleficarum to Michelet's La sorcière, and to Mona Chollet's very recent Sorcières, the representation of the witch in French literature and society has undergone numerous updates and adaptations. These works, that first have social purposes, embody important sources of literary symbols and representations of a figure which serve to indicate someone who eschews religious, moral, or scientific norms. Moreover, voodoo practices and magic healing, those which differ from the representation of Christian demonic witchcraft, are crucial themes and cultural elements in the French-speaking world. The witch figure, as well as witchcraft, have been resurfacing in today's French and Francophone culture, and it tends to offer new angles to address themes revolving around marginality. For example, this character, often — but not only — associated with women, invite a discourse centered on femininity and feminism in today's world. Its reflections in arts such as literature, theater, or cinema, seem to bring together the social resonances of this figure on the one hand, and the literary fantasy built around witchcraft on the other. More specifically, artistic productions around these themes prove to be a favorable lens to observe the evolution of the witch from an object of persecution to a venerated symbol.

Learn more about the keynote speaker, Lauren (Robin) Derby, associate professor of History at University of California in Los Angeles, and the panel topics on the conference website.