Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Cognitive Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the histories of witchcraft and witchcraft accusations.
- Evaluate differences in historiographical understandings of witchcraft in the early modern era
- Make analytical connections between different types of sources and theories in explaining why there were so many witchcraft prosecutions in the early modern period.
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Work confidently with library, archival and virtual sources as appropriate
- Evaluate and compare different genres of source text
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- develop orally and in writing sound and well supported arguments.
- gather and digest relevant primary and secondary source materials including via electronic and web resources
- put forward your ideas and arguments in group discussions, and consider the arguments put forward by your fellow students
- engage in independent study and research.
- elaborate and express your ideas and critical reflections in essays, using primary and secondary sources.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The variety of witchcraft narratives in the period 1542-1736 and the factors determining those variations
- The historiographies of witchcraft in early modern England
- The primary sources and testimonies that provide historical evidence for stories of witchcraft in the early modern period.
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Completion of assessment task | 54 |
Lecture | 12 |
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 36 |
Wider reading or practice | 12 |
Seminar | 12 |
Revision | 24 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Journal Articles
D. Purkiss (1997). ‘Desire and its Deformities: Fantasies of Witchcraft during the English Civil War’. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 27(1).
Textbooks
C. Ewen (1929). Witch-Hunting and Witch Trials.
R. Poole (ed.) (2000). The Lancashire Witches.
B.P. Levack (2006). The Witch-Hunt in early Modern Europe.
O. Davies (1999). A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset.
P. Elmer (2016). Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting and Politics in Early Modern England.
B. Rosen (1991). Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618.
M. Gaskill (2005). Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy.
M. Stoyle (2011). The Black Legend of Prince Rupert’s Dog: Witchcraft and Propaganda during the English Civil War.
J. Sharpe (2002). ‘The Witch’s Familiar in Early Modern England’, in G.W. Bernard and S.J. Gunn (eds), Authority and Consent in Tudor England.
A.Macfarlane (1970). Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England.
K. Brigges (1962). Pale Hecate’s Team: An Examination of the Beliefs on Witchcraft and Magic among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries.
C. Hole (1986). Witchcraft in Britain.
M. Stoyle (2017-18). Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart Exeter.
J. Sharpe (1996). Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in England, 1550-1750.
H. Trevor-Roper (1947). Four Centuries of Witch-Belief.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Written assignment | 40% |
Essay | 60% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External