Vexed with Devils

Vexed with Devils
Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
Total Pages : 244
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781479871131
ISBN-13 : 1479871133
Rating : 4/5 (31 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Vexed with Devils by : Erika Gasser

Download or read book Vexed with Devils written by Erika Gasser and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-12-15 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern England through the last official trials in colonial New England Those possessed by the devil in early modern England usually exhibited a common set of symptoms: fits, vomiting, visions, contortions, speaking in tongues, and an antipathy to prayer. However, it was a matter of interpretation, and sometimes public opinion, if these symptoms were visited upon the victim, or if they came from within. Both early modern England and colonial New England had cases that blurred the line between witchcraft and demonic possession, most famously, the Salem witch trials. While historians acknowledge some similarities in witch trials between the two regions, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of witches were women, the histories of these cases primarily focus on local contexts and specifics. In so doing, they overlook the ways in which manhood factored into possession and witchcraft cases. Vexed with Devils is a cultural history of witchcraft-possession phenomena that centers on the role of men and patriarchal power. Erika Gasser reveals that witchcraft trials had as much to do with who had power in the community, to impose judgement or to subvert order, as they did with religious belief. She argues that the gendered dynamics of possession and witchcraft demonstrated that contested meanings of manhood played a critical role in the struggle to maintain authority. While all men were not capable of accessing power in the same ways, many of the people involved—those who acted as if they were possessed, men accused of being witches, and men who wrote possession propaganda—invoked manhood as they struggled to advocate for themselves during these perilous times. Gasser ultimately concludes that the decline of possession and witchcraft cases was not merely a product of change over time, but rather an indication of the ways in which patriarchal power endured throughout and beyond the colonial period. Vexed with Devils reexamines an unnerving time and offers a surprising new perspective on our own, using stories and voices which emerge from the records in ways that continue to fascinate and unsettle us.


Vexed with Devils Related Books

Vexed with Devils
Language: en
Pages: 244
Authors: Erika Gasser
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-12-15 - Publisher: NYU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern England through the last official trials in colonial New England Those possessed by the devil in
The Works
Language: en
Pages: 482
Authors: William Bridge
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1845 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Witchcraft in New England
Language: en
Pages: 544
Authors: Cotton Mather
Categories: Body, Mind & Spirit
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-12-17 - Publisher: e-artnow

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Witchcraft in New England in three volumes is a book relating the Salem witch trials of 1692-1693. It presents the compilation of works on the subject by Co
Feast on the Word
Language: en
Pages: 199
Authors: Germaine D. Miller
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-12 - Publisher: Hope of Vision Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Wonders of the Invisible World
Language: en
Pages: 216
Authors: Cotton Mather
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-11-19 - Publisher: Good Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The Wonders of the Invisible World" by Cotton Mather, Increase Mather. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses ev