Otherworldly and Other Worlds: Representing the Unseen in Early Modern Europe

Catalog description

This course will examine European beliefs about vampires, witches, angels, demons, “monstrous races” and other enchanted and unseen beings between 1500-1800— the era of the famous witch hunts and a period of confrontation between belief and disbelief about these figures. Spurred by new instruments like the telescope, new technologies in printing and cartography, and unprecedented travel across the globe, knowledge about the universe increasingly expanded in this period to incorporate new discoveries and observations. Close analysis of several case studies will highlight how dramatic debates about these creatures played out in visual form in early modern Europe.