America's Witchcraft Myths: Culture and Gender Politics in the American Literature of Witchcraft

Texts about witchcraft have been important in American culture since before the Salem trials of 1692, growing out of the folklores and legal traditions of early-modern immigrants. But events at Salem meant that such texts acquired immense political and cultural significance. My research identifies the place of witches ('real' and imaginary) in the fashioning of American identities. It demonstrates that the figure of the witch is still important literary-cultural currency, and delineate the origins of American witchcraft fictions in the conjunction of the European Renaissance with the cultural imperatives of the American colonies.