Women and the Supernatural: Agency, and Oppression at the Intersection of Gender and Religion in Reformation England

本研究将探讨英国宗教改革中的性别观念如何通过我们现在称之为“超自然”的现象刺激和促进宗教话语。超自然在这里作为一种自由的建构，包括广泛的实践，在宗教改革时期，被不同地解释为正统的，非正统的，无法解释的，神圣的，神秘的，顺从或颠覆-这些做法包括巫术、预言、精神占有、狡猾的妇女、鬼魂、畸形的生育和天意的干预。最重要的是，超自然的集体透镜使本研究得以追溯性别的线索--女性的能动性、罪责、束缚和生活经历--贯穿于一个女性身份被教义和父权制控制的时期。与16和17世纪宗教话语的任何方面不同，见证或讨论超自然现象的简单行为被接受，并且是参与精神生活的无歧视手段，不受文盲，神学训练和物质或文化资本等社会经济障碍的阻碍。因此，揭示了多种方法，使妇女既符合和面对更广泛的结构改革，成为自愿的参与者，数字的怀疑，代理人的变化和受害者的镇压。性别和自然之间的这种多方面的遭遇是推动这项拟议研究的最紧迫问题的基础。性别和超自然之间的关系是什么？超自然现象是表达能动性和参与宗教生活的一种手段吗？因此，它是规避家长制的一种手段吗？为什么女人特别适合超自然现象？是什么样的文化，社会，法律的，神学环境使得这种情况？

This research will examine how notions of gender in Reformation England stimulated and contributed toreligious discourse through what we now term 'supernatural' phenomena.Playfully rejecting its anachronistic, historically contingent definition, the supernatural here functions as adeliberate construct encompassing a broad range of practices which were, at the time of theReformation, varyingly interpreted as orthodox, heterodox, inexplicable, divine, mystical, conformist orsubversive - such practices include witchcraft, prophesy, spiritual possession, cunning women, ghosts,monstrous births and providential intervention. Crucially, the collective lens of the supernatural allowsthis research to trace the thread of gender - the agency, culpability, constriction and lived experiences ofwomen - throughout a period in which female identity was controlled by doctrine and patriarchy. Unlikemany aspects of religious discourse during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the simple acts ofbearing witness to or discussing the supernatural were accepted and indiscriminatory means ofparticipating in spiritual life, unencumbered by socioeconomic barriers such as illiteracy, theologicaltraining, and material or cultural capital.The supernatural, therefore, exposes the multiple methods by which women both conformed to andconfronted the wider structures of the Reformation, to become willing participants, figures of suspicion,agents of change and victims of suppression. Such multifaceted encounters between gender and thesupernatural underpin the most urgent questions driving this proposed study. What is the relationshipbetween gender and the supernatural? Was the supernatural a means of expressing agency andpartaking in religious life? Was it, therefore, a means of circumventing patriarchal systems? Why werewomen particularly suited to the supernatural? What were the cultural, social, legal, theologicalcircumstances that made this the case?