The Witch (in Theory)

Catalog description

This semester, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch (2004), we will inquire into the problem of the witch’s theorization. How do witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts represent a challenge for explanation or interpretation, and what do witches have to do with the production and theorization of knowledge, with accounts of intimacy and individuation? How might explanations of witchcraft amount to theories of linguistic efficacy or contend with the limits of language itself? What does the witch have to do with history: How, for instance, do the infamous witch-hunts of renaissance Europe illuminate the emergence of capitalism and the constitution of “secular modernity”? Our approach will be selective rather than exhaustive: we will read political-philosophical and feminist recuperations of the witch, and we will likewise examine historical, anthropological, and sociological treatments of the witch in relationship to social explanation (Favret-Saada, Michelet, Siegel, and others). We will conclude by looking in depth at two prominent “cases” of enchantment, one from the seventeenth century and another from the twentieth, and, along the way, we will read comparatively on witchcraft, sorcery, and magic. Finally, we’ll take stock of the surprisingly common side-effect experienced by those who study witches, namely, their own bewitchment. This course is open to graduate students working across the humanities, arts, and social sciences, and we will read widely and across disciplines and theoretical frameworks.