Creative Histories of Witchcraft, France 1790-1940

This project addresses two core questions. The first is a historical puzzle: why did witchcraft endure into the modern period in France? The second is methodological: which tools and techniques can historians learn from working collaboratively with creative practitioners, such as playwrights and poets?

Witchcraft should not have existed in nineteenth-century France. Decriminalized in 1682, witchcraft was definitively excluded from legal consideration by the Revolutionary penal code of 1791. As a crime 'created by superstition', in the Revolutionaries' terms, witchcraft had no official place in criminal procedure. Among medical specialists, a growing consensus held that belief in witches was a delusion. Over the nineteenth century support for the possibility of witchcraft even drained from the Catholic Church, as it grew more concerned with responding to the challenges of secularism and policing the boundaries of orthodox practice. Yet, from the French Revolution to the Second World War, large numbers of French men and women believed that other humans could harm them using supernatural powers. More than six hundred and fifty criminal cases involving witchcraft testify to how seriously many people took this belief. From 1791-1940, at least sixty seven men and women were murdered as suspected witches, and even more were assaulted. Hundreds of people were successfully prosecuted for fraud and illegal medical practice for claiming to have the power to bewitch or un-witch.

How can historians bring these fears of witchcraft to life, and how can they do this with sensitivity to the harms for which witchcraft beliefs are responsible? This project adopts novel approaches to exploring the puzzling persistence of witchcraft, involving imaginative reconstruction and creative writing. Through collaborations with creative practitioners the project will explore dramatic and novelistic presentations of real-life witchcraft cases found in nineteenth-century court records and digitized newspapers. It will lead to three types of output:

1. Two academic articles: one on the social profiles of the men and women involved in witchcraft conflicts, and a second on the methodological value of a turn to creativity among historians.
2. A portfolio of creative writing pieces, including theatre scripts, poetry, and non-fiction, with an introduction co-written by all three core project members.
3. A crossover book, which uses the tools of non-fiction and creative writing to present the true story of a 1925 case of a murdered witch from the point of view of the murderer himself, blending historical research and creative writing.

Events on the project include a mini-festival of theatre and creative writing about witchcraft, and two workshops on creative writing, theatre, and historical research. These events will serve to catalyse work by historians interested in dramatizing their research, thereby setting the agenda for the emerging field of creative histories.

Rather than treating creativity as a way to turn research into entertaining outputs, what does it mean to embrace creative methods from the beginning of a project? These questions are especially pressing for the case of witchcraft. Some academics have worried that the emotional investment of radical feminists and modern Wiccans has distorted this history, producing good stories that are academically unsound. This project will suggest, on the contrary, that there are ways that working creatively can also facilitate better academic research, including short-form writing and the use of dramatic dialogue. Not only does this have implications for the history of criminal justice in this period, as well as for the history of witchcraft: it also suggests ways that many different types of historians can learn from creative practices.

This project will benefit the following non-academic stakeholders:

1. Arts organizations and local museums. Museums, archives, and arts organizations have led the way in developing new approaches to historical materials that engage with a range of interested audiences. This project will develop conversations between these organizations and academics who are experimenting with creative writing, theatre, and arts practices. Inviting a selection of local organizations to the workshops in Bristol will be an opportunity for academics to learn how heritage professionals and arts organizations have been creatively presenting historical materials. For the non-academic partners, it will provide them with examples of cutting-edge academic research that also speaks to questions of impact and engagement. The support of the Brigstow Institute at the University of Bristol, which aims to bring together researchers and non-academic partners, is central to the administration of the project. The project will greatly benefit from the network the Institute has built up in order to facilitate conversations between academics, arts practitioners, and heritage institutions.

2. Contemporary pagans. In particular, the themes of the research project will interest contemporary pagans, who are avid for new histories of magical practice, and flexible in their engagement with historical materials. Although this engagement will come towards the end of the project in public events in Boscastle and Bristol, these discussions will also shape the book which I will finish after the project is finished.

To help engage both sets of stakeholders, the Museum of Witchraft in Boscastle will be a Project Partner. Coordinating the mini-festival of creative writing and theatre about witchcraft with the Museum offers opportunities to engage with the Museum's collections, library, and ongoing impact work. The Museum is the perfect venue for communicating with the pagan community, as it has a proven track record of attracting contemporary pagans interested in the histories of magic and witchcraft.

The Museum of Witchcraft's role will be to host the mini-festival of creative writing and theatre concerning witchcraft, and they will also be invited to workshops in Bristol on creative writing and dramatizing research.

Further information on impact activities is provided in the Pathways to Impact statement.