Outside the imagination, witches don't exist. But in Poland and in
Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined
their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. For the first
time in English, Michael Ostling tells the story of the imagined
Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant-women got caught in
webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture
to the most heinous of crimes. Through a close reading of
accusations and confessions, Ostling also shows how witches
imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically,
the tales they tell of infanticide and host-desecration reveal to
us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of
demonic sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies
uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy.
Caught between the devil and the host, the self-imagined Polish
witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they
stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through
the dark glass of witchcraft Ostling explores the religious lives
of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their
Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their
adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist,
and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.
General
| Imprint: |
Oxford UniversityPress
|
| Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
| Series: |
The Past and Present Book Series |
| Release date: |
2024 |
| Authors: |
Michael Ostling
(Teaching Professor and Honors Fellow)
|
| Dimensions: |
234 x 156mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
304 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-19-886711-1 |
| Categories: |
Books
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
0-19-886711-5 |
| Barcode: |
9780198867111 |
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