Format: Thèse

« Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous nous intéressons aux représentations de la sorcière dans la littérature d’inspiration historique à partir des années 1970. Nous analysons la construction de cette figure protéiforme et les métamorphoses qu’elle connaît dans l’imaginaire social lors des dernières décennies du XXe siècle. Plus précisément, nous examinons les différentes facettes de la sorcière, telles qu’elles apparaissent dans quatre romans francophones d’inspiration historique, en relation avec les discours historiques, féministes et postcoloniaux, et les autres productions culturelles de la même période. En étudiant les interactions entre les représentations de la sorcière et d’autres œuvres, travaux et tendances de l’époque, notre thèse met en lumière les problématiques abordées à travers cette figure dans les textes littéraires. La figure de la sorcière reprend notamment des enjeux qui marquent les dernières décennies du XXe siècle, tels la place des femmes et des cultures minoritaires dans la société, la représentation du corps féminin, le recul des religions traditionnelles et l’écriture de l’Histoire. Au moyen des approches sociocritique et intertextuelle, nous explorons ces enjeux et analysons la façon dont les œuvres développent ou prolongent ces réflexions en abordant la figure de la sorcière.

De manière à pouvoir tracer l’évolution de la figure et des questions qui lui sont liées, la thèse est divisée en trois parties, représentant chacune une décennie distincte. Après un préambule brossant un tableau de l’imaginaire de la sorcière au début des années 1970, une première partie se concentre sur la construction de la figure de la sorcière dans les romans Les Enfants du sabbat d’Anne Hébert et La Fontaine obscure de Raymond Jean, parus lors de la décennie 1970. Une deuxième partie, centrée sur la décennie 1980, se penche sur le roman Moi, Tituba sorcière… de Maryse Condé. Enfin, une troisième partie s’intéresse au roman Instruments des ténèbres de Nancy Huston, publié pendant les années 1990. En combinant différentes approches, cette thèse tend à mieux comprendre la fonction de la sorcière dans la littérature et les idées qui lui sont associées dans l’imaginaire social à partir de 1970. » [Résumé]

« This dissertation uses a grounded theory perspective to uncover the process of white women who find self-empowerment in the appropriation of historically stigmatized identities and rhetoric surrounding a self-described witch identity. The sample in this study included 13 white women who self-identified as witches across varying socioeconomic and geographical lines. The four main research questions that guide this research study are: 1) what sociologically relevant factors lead women choosing to self-identify as a witch?; 2) what components does the process of choosing to identify as a witch entail?; 3) what meanings do self-identified witches attach to their and others’ depictions of witches in popular culture?; and, finally, 4) what experiences do self-identified witches have with agents of social control?

Of the 13 respondents, 10 were interviewed via Zoom, a video and audio recording app, and then professionally transcribed. The remaining 3 interviews were conducted via email, with follow up emails for clarification and more detail. The interview findings were analyzed following the logic of grounded theory, which included a journal for notes throughout the entire research process, memo writing, initial coding, thematic coding, and some axial coding.

The main findings of this dissertation are discussed focusing on the following findings based on the self-reported experiences of self-identified witches: 1) self-identified witches create self-empowerment from being able to control their bodies and the environment around them; 2) this self-empowerment can be strengthened significantly through the development and understanding of their own non-conformity, particularly in politics; 3) in some cases (particularly those with lower status in education and socio-economic status), comparing themselves with others, and ultimately ranking themselves as “better” than these others, makes respondents feel stronger and gain status back.; 4) popular culture depictions of witches does not necessarily play a role in self-identified witches own construction of their identity, but it plays a strong role in their view of how other’s view them (Mead’s “generalized-other”); 5) they respond to their construction of the generalized other and ultimately adjust their own behaviors in based on their perceptions’ of how others view them due to a fear of social control such as, rejection, being laughed at, being viewed as dangerous or scary, and the negative impact it could have on their jobs. » [Résumé]

« From L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1899, to the release of the Disney movie Maleficent in 2014 and beyond, witches have reflected the struggle in politics, literature, and popular culture over how women are represented. This representation has had real consequences because it is one way women have learned how to understand their own positions in society and because some women have used the image of the witch to try to change that position. This dissertation argues that changes to the representation of the witch in the twentieth and twenty-first century have both reflected and influenced ideas about what behavior and attributes are acceptable for women. In this dissertation, I identify four general phases of representation of the witch that fall between the late 1950s and the early twenty-first century. These four phases are: reclaiming, centering, post-feminism, and backlash. The first two phases, reclaiming and centering, tend to empower the female through the image of the witch. The third phase, post-feminism, demonstrates a struggle between empowerment and disempowerment. The fourth, backlash, is an extreme form of post-feminism in which evil witches mostly embody negative stereotypes about women and good witches proscribe a narrow range of acceptable behaviors and attributes. The four phases reflect challenges to feminism, as does the movement of the image of the witch from feminist to popular culture. In this dissertation, I use a feminist perspective to analyze cultural artifacts relating to the witch, placing them in discursive, social, and institutional contexts that reveal the changing representations of the witch in feminist and popular culture. Artifacts include second-wave feminist poetry, short stories, and novels, as well as movies and television shows. The dissertation’s focus comes primarily from cultural studies, so it views the witch as a figure that engages with cultural anxieties about and expectations of women even as the witch figure constructs gender, sexuality, class, and race. I focus on intertextuality and the social history of a variety of artifacts in order to trace how perceptions of the witch have changed as cultures changed. Some of the themes include how these representations and changes reflect attitudes about power, difference, and who has the right to express anger. » [Résumé]

« The familiar spirit was a phenomenon unique to early modern English witchcraft that, while appearing often in witchcraft narratives, has been the subject of little analysis. Appearing often as an animal, offering services in exchange for the witch’s soul, and forming a unique relationship with the witch, the familiar spirit often appears in the narratives supplied by trial participants as described in pamphlet material. This thesis aims to analyse the appearance of the familiar in English pamphlet material in the early modern period, showing trends in the details provided over time. » [Résumé]

« Le mouvement punk a souvent été considéré comme le premier au sein de la musique populaire américaine à inclure un message féministe. Cette thèse vise cependant à démontrer qu’un tel message existait déjà entre 1967 et 1976 dans différentes musiques populaires car nombre de chanteuses et musiciennes s’inspirèrent de la seconde vague féministe ou y prirent activement part. L’étude porte sur la carrière de différentes artistes, notamment de Nina Simone Yoko Ono, Betty Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie et Janis Joplin, et analyse leurs albums de musiques populaires et leurs pochettes, leurs concerts et leurs affiches ou encore différents entretiens qu’elles ont eu.La thèse met d’abord en lumière l’implication directe des chanteuses et musiciennes au sein de la seconde vague féministe américaine. Elle analyse les dynamiques complexes entre un mouvement régulièrement accusé de racisme et de classisme, et des artistes qui lièrent leur carrière musicale et leur participation au bouillonnement social de la période. Le rapport qu’elles entretenaient à l’industrie musicale, à la presse et aux fans est une autre facette de leur démarche féministe. L’image que ces femmes renvoyaient constitue alors un terrain de luttes central et l’acceptation de leur mise à l’écart de la société mainstream leur permit d’utiliser la figure féministe de la sorcière pour s’affirmer et espérer atteindre une forme d’émancipation personnelle ou professionnelle. » [Résumé]

« This is a project about failure, about failed beings. Namely, it is about women, who are failed men, and witches, who are failed women – but it is not simply about defining those categories. I also aim to demonstrate how these failed creatures use their status as “other” to overcome that limitation and define their lives on their own terms.

My dissertation focuses on two powerful women in literature who are traditionally seen as witches, Euripides’ Medea and Bulgakov’s Margarita. Their use of “other” knowledge (witchcraft) allows them to resist the hegemonic forces at play within their texts and to serve as examples of resistance to those outside reading the text.

These witches are not meant to serve only as merely esoteric exercises . I intend to demonstrate how their isolation and frustration is felt by women today as well as to highlight the fact that women still are marginalized and denied full entry in humanity. They will prove that examples in literature can provide answers to the questions of gender, sex, and sexuality that reverberate in the 21st century.

The significance of this project is not restricted to gender, however; it also addresses the power of the humanities and reaffirms their importance in today’s world. The 21st century has seen an intensification of the troubling conversations about the role the humanities should play in higher education and in the world. The value and practicality of the humanities has been questioned in these troubled economic times; they have been dismissed as serving no real purpose and for leaving its disciples allegedly ill-equipped to face our rapidly changing and technologically charged world. With these arguments, I must however respectfully and forcefully disagree—for what could be more vitally important, more urgently charged than to discuss and discover what makes us human? » [Résumé]

« Many popular publications and movies on Paganism and Witchcraft present a stereotypical image of Witches and Pagans, connecting them with fairy tales and secret Satanic rituals and demonism. A Halloween special, Unexplained: Witches, Werewolves and Vampires…Are They Real? lumps Witches in with other “fabulous monsters.” The image of the Witch remains a caricature in popular culture. Witchcraft and Paganism remain poorly understood despite the fact that a growing trend exists in the United States today for adults and children to identify themselves as Witches and Pagans. Contemporary Pagans live between the worlds of the majority culture, myth and their own religious experience. Hollywood images color identity, existing in the role of the Other to a Christian majority causes conflict and strengthens self-identification, as the new religion struggles to define itself rather than allowing itself to be defined by popular culture and Christian hyperbole. Nonetheless, Pagans use elements of each of these worlds to construct a new self-identity and image of what it means to be a magical creature, a product of myth, history and prejudice. This dissertation explores the conflict and promise of living between the worlds as a contemporary Pagan.

As a researcher of contemporary Paganism, I pursue the subject of my inquiry with scientific rigor and a strong ethic for fairness, objectivity and empathy. I also possess another identity. I am a Witch. My dual positions of insider and outsider pose questions concerning issues of identity and positionality which remain crucial factors in the all methodologies and research. This dissertation confronts these issues, building upon my own experience of living on the tightrope between the subjectivity of believer and the objectivity of a scientist. As a practitioner of Wicca, I live between the worlds of the majority culture, academia, myth and Wicca. I use elements of each of these worlds to construct a new self-identity and image of what it means to be a Witch. This dissertation explores the conflict and promise of living between the worlds as a scholar and a Witch. » [Résumé]

« Western culture, as a result of our scientific, rational paradigm, has repressed and devalued certain aspects of nature and matter, sensuality, sexuality, death, and transformation, which belong to the realm of the dark feminine principle. Both men and women have suffered because of this devaluation, creating a sense of dis-ease and feelings of emptiness, which are often expressed through addiction, consumerism, depression, and long work days. The focus of this study addresses women’s struggles to recognize and redeem these repressed and devalued parts within themselves and in their outer world.

Using the hermeneutic method of interpretation, amplification, and reflection, this study will address “The Old Witch” from More English Fairy Tales by Jacobs (1968), and attend to what lessons are offered to women today in search of themselves. Any fairy tale, when viewed as a series of symbolic expressions of the unconscious, offers many possible responses to the vagaries of life’s experiences. Amplification of the motifs of “The Old Witch” are enhanced by attention to myths of goddesses, views of woman and of the phenomenon of the witch hunts, theories from Self and analytical psychologies, and the use of clinical vignettes.

The Old Witch offers a woman a roadmap to the unconscious with markers helping her to prepare for her encounter with the witch and to hold onto the treasure she finds. This inner work, which the tale describes, eventually leads a woman back into the everyday, mundane life better able to be of service to her Self, her family, and her community with renewed vitality, a sense of meaning and purpose, confidence, and self-love. » [Résumé]

« Ce projet documente et analyse la transformation genrée des figures magiques survenant dans la romance arthurienne en Angleterre du XIIe au XVIe siècle. Dans les textes précédents, la magie est principalement une activité masculine, qui confère prestige et pouvoir à son utilisateur, mais dans les textes ultérieurs, la magie devient une activité principalement féminine, qui marque son utilisateur comme méchant et hérétique. Le prophète devient la méchante sorcière. Cette thèse explore les motivations littéraires et sociales de cette transformation.

Le deuxième chapitre examine les représentations de la magie dans les textes de quatre auteurs appartenant au canon arthurien : Geoffroy de Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France et Layamon. Ces auteurs interprètent la magie de la même manière (représentant la prophétie et certaines formes de magie transformatrice comme masculine et guérissante comme féminine) et utilisent des figures genrées pour atténuer la menace du pouvoir masculin posée par le patriarcat féodal présent en Angleterre et en France au XIIe siècle.

Le troisième chapitre explore les représentations de deux personnages magiques qui apparaissent dans un groupe de romans des XIVe et XVe siècles associés à Gauvain : le chevalier chahuté et la dame répugnante. Les auteurs de ces romans privilégient des conventions de genre radicalement différentes de celles des modèles précédents et évoquent une figure négligée par les auteurs précédents, la méchante sorcière. En particulier, les représentations de la sorcière en tant que méchante belle-mère reflètent l’anxiété créée par l’élargissement de la place réservée aux femmes (en particulier aux mères) dans des domaines auparavant exclusivement masculins de la société anglaise.

Dans le quatrième chapitre, je retrace la tradition romantique jusqu’au début de l’Angleterre moderne, en étudiant les œuvres de Malory, Spenser et Shakespeare. Pour ces auteurs, la méchante sorcière (représentée alternativement comme tentatrice ou crone) est spécifiquement liée à la maternité ; la profonde inquiétude suscitée par la maternité dans ces textes est représentative de l’inquiétude généralisée à l’égard des mères et de la maternité dans l’Angleterre du XVIe siècle.

Le chapitre 5 retrace la politique législative régissant les poursuites contre les sorcières en Angleterre et propose des suggestions sur la relation entre le climat juridique et les représentations littéraires de la magie. Bien que les poursuites pour sorcellerie soient désormais extrêmement rares aux États-Unis, les cinéastes s’appuient toujours sur des modèles médiévaux et de la Renaissance pour étayer leurs représentations des sorcières. Une fois arrivée, la sorcière n’est jamais repartie. » [Résumé, traduit avec proquest]