Creative Histories of Witchcraft, France 1790-1940

法国巫术创作史，1790-1940 年

基本信息

批准号：
AH/S000127/1
负责人：
William Pooley
金额：
$ 22.53万
依托单位：
University of Bristol
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2019 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FS000127%2F1
关键词：
Creative Histories Witchcraft France 1790

项目摘要

This project addresses two core questions. The first is a historical puzzle: why did witchcraft endure into the modern period in France? The second is methodological: which tools and techniques can historians learn from working collaboratively with creative practitioners, such as playwrights and poets?Witchcraft should not have existed in nineteenth-century France. Decriminalized in 1682, witchcraft was definitively excluded from legal consideration by the Revolutionary penal code of 1791. As a crime 'created by superstition', in the Revolutionaries' terms, witchcraft had no official place in criminal procedure. Among medical specialists, a growing consensus held that belief in witches was a delusion. Over the nineteenth century support for the possibility of witchcraft even drained from the Catholic Church, as it grew more concerned with responding to the challenges of secularism and policing the boundaries of orthodox practice. Yet, from the French Revolution to the Second World War, large numbers of French men and women believed that other humans could harm them using supernatural powers. More than six hundred and fifty criminal cases involving witchcraft testify to how seriously many people took this belief. From 1791-1940, at least sixty seven men and women were murdered as suspected witches, and even more were assaulted. Hundreds of people were successfully prosecuted for fraud and illegal medical practice for claiming to have the power to bewitch or un-witch. How can historians bring these fears of witchcraft to life, and how can they do this with sensitivity to the harms for which witchcraft beliefs are responsible? This project adopts novel approaches to exploring the puzzling persistence of witchcraft, involving imaginative reconstruction and creative writing. Through collaborations with creative practitioners the project will explore dramatic and novelistic presentations of real-life witchcraft cases found in nineteenth-century court records and digitized newspapers. It will lead to three types of output:1. Two academic articles: one on the social profiles of the men and women involved in witchcraft conflicts, and a second on the methodological value of a turn to creativity among historians.2. A portfolio of creative writing pieces, including theatre scripts, poetry, and non-fiction, with an introduction co-written by all three core project members.3. A crossover book, which uses the tools of non-fiction and creative writing to present the true story of a 1925 case of a murdered witch from the point of view of the murderer himself, blending historical research and creative writing.Events on the project include a mini-festival of theatre and creative writing about witchcraft, and two workshops on creative writing, theatre, and historical research. These events will serve to catalyse work by historians interested in dramatizing their research, thereby setting the agenda for the emerging field of creative histories. Rather than treating creativity as a way to turn research into entertaining outputs, what does it mean to embrace creative methods from the beginning of a project? These questions are especially pressing for the case of witchcraft. Some academics have worried that the emotional investment of radical feminists and modern Wiccans has distorted this history, producing good stories that are academically unsound. This project will suggest, on the contrary, that there are ways that working creatively can also facilitate better academic research, including short-form writing and the use of dramatic dialogue. Not only does this have implications for the history of criminal justice in this period, as well as for the history of witchcraft: it also suggests ways that many different types of historians can learn from creative practices.

该项目解决了两个核心问题。第一个是一个历史难题：为什么巫术在法国的现代时期持久？第二是方法论：历史学家可以从与创意从业者（例如剧作家和诗人）合作中学习哪些工具和技术？巫术在19世纪的法国不应该存在。在1682年将巫术定为合法性，巫术被1791年的《革命性刑法》一定地排除在法律考虑之外。作为革命者的犯罪，作为一种犯罪，涉嫌“迷信造成”，巫术在刑事诉讼中没有官方地位。在医学专家中，越来越多的共识认为对女巫的信念是一种妄想。在十九世纪，随着巫术的可能性甚至从天主教会上耗尽，它越来越关注对世俗主义和维持正统实践边界的挑战的越来越关注。然而，从法国大革命到第二次世界大战，大量法国男人和妇女都认为其他人类可以使用超自然的力量伤害他们。涉及巫术的六百五十多个刑事案件证明了许多人对这种信念的认真认真。从1791年至1940年，至少有67名男女被谋杀为涉嫌巫婆，甚至遭到了更多袭击。数百人因欺诈和非法医学惯例而成功起诉，声称有能力欺骗或脱衣服。历史学家如何将这些对巫术的恐惧栩栩如生，以及他们如何以对巫术信仰负责的危害敏感的敏感性？该项目采用了新颖的方法来探索巫术的令人困惑的持久性，涉及富有想象力的重建和创造性写作。通过与创意从业者的合作，该项目将探讨19世纪法院记录和数字化报纸中发现的现实生活中巫术案件的戏剧性和新颖性演示。它将导致三种类型的输出：1。两篇学术文章：一篇关于参与巫术冲突的男人和妇女的社会概况，第二篇关于历史学家之间创造力的方法论价值的第二。2。创意写作作品的作品集，包括戏剧剧本，诗歌和非小说类作品，并由所有三个核心项目成员共同撰写了介绍。3。一本跨界书使用非小说和创造性写作的工具从凶手本人的角度介绍了1925年被谋杀的女巫案例的真实故事，融合了历史研究和创意写作。该项目的事件包括戏剧的迷你戏剧和创意写作，以及有关巫术的小型创意写作，以及有关创造性写作，戏剧和历史研究的两个工作室。这些事件将促进有兴趣戏剧研究的历史学家的工作，从而为新兴的创意历史领域制定议程。与其将创造力视为将研究变成娱乐成果的一种方式，不如从项目开始时接受创意方法是什么？对于巫术案，这些问题尤其迫在眉睫。一些学者担心激进的女权主义者和现代维坎人的情感投资扭曲了这一历史，产生了学术上不合理的好故事。相反，该项目将表明，有一些创造性地工作也可以促进更好的学术研究，包括短形式的写作和使用戏剧性的对话。这不仅对这一时期的刑事司法历史以及巫术历史都有影响：它还提出了许多不同类型的历史学家可以从创造性实践中学习的方法。