Witch Pamphlets

Authors' Names

Tsea M. Francisconi, University of Montana, MissoulaFollow

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Category

Visual and Performing Arts (includes Creative Writing; sculpture, painting, video, dancing, music, reading, etc.)

Abstract/Artist Statement

The witch hysteria that overtook Christian Europe during the Early Modern era inspired a mass paranoia over the conspiratorial belief that the Abrahamic religion’s personification of the world’s evils was attempting to rise up and harm Christian communities during this time period. It was believed that in order to achieve this goal the Christian version of the Devil had been recruiting humans within Christian communities and turning these chosen humans into witches in order to spread their destruction, murder, and terror amongst their own neighbors and families. Over the course of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England, the impact of the witch hysteria resulted in the publication of illustrated witchcraft pamphlets, where news of witch trials would be recounted in detail. When compared against illustrations from other English pamphlets published during this same time period, the witchcraft pamphlets stand out as distinctly different through their portrayal of female witches as caricatures with visual symbolism representing the believed malicious capabilities that witches possessed against society. A comparison of witchcraft pamphlets against other pamphlets printed in different genres also showcases the hypocrisies in which the witchcraft illustrations that are supposed to be presenting the sins of witches had been tamed down, despite the text going into detail on the accused sins of the witches. This indicates the printing houses had taken marketing into account. Likewise depictions of female witches versus male witches in illustrations show the female witches as ugly lower class caricatures, while male witches are shown holding higher positions in society. These items point to witchcraft hysteria being partly fueled through the lucrative marketability of people’s fears.

For my thesis I will be analyzing illustrations from examples of English witchcraft pamphlets dating from the time period 1579 to 1658. I will then analyze examples of other non-witch related wood block printed illustrations from England, that come from around the same time frame. I will then compare the example groups against one another to prove that there is a discernable difference in the art style used to portray witches, and the art style used to portray illustrated characters that do not mention of witches.

The mass-produced art from these pamphlets and prints played a key role in not only giving visualization aid to the concept of witchcraft, but also helped to normalize and even popularize a deadly outbreak of paranoid social hysteria. Even if certain people of the time were dubious of the existence of witches, there still was a certain power to being given an explanation for why bad things happened in the form of a monster that could be fought and triumphed over, the evil power cleansed from the community through mortal means. The lesson to take away from this historical time period is that illustrated methods of propaganda have always had an influence over people, and it is crucial to always keep a critical mind about where we get our information, be that from an paper pamphlet or from a computer screen.

Mentor Name

Rafael Chacon

Personal Statement

Humans are habitual creatures, history always seems to repeat itself because it is the nature of human beings to stick with their habits, both good and bad. The mass-produced art from witchcraft pamphlets and prints in the Early Modern Era of Europe played a key role in not only giving visual aid to the concept of witchcraft, but also helped to normalize and even popularize a deadly outbreak of paranoid social hysteria. Even if certain people of the time were dubious of the existence of witches, there still was a certain power to being given an explanation for why bad things happened in the form of a tangible monster that could be fought and triumphed over, the evil power cleansed from the community through mortal means. A hauntingly familiar trend that is being witnessed within the past few years of our modern era. The critical lesson to take away from this historical time period is that illustrated methods of propaganda have always had an influence over people, and it is crucial to study how visual propaganda influences people and why propaganda directed towards stirring up societal hysteria in particular is so effective, even when there is abundant evidence to the contrary, and especially when that propaganda is being used against the better interests and health of communities as a whole. It is through education, and thorough understanding of why human reactions of past historical events had happened the way they did, that we in the modern era will help mitigate problems in future times of crisis. By giving the wider populace the right tools to use in how they research information, to always be sure to fact-check their sources, and use this dark era of the European witch hunts as a cautionary example to educate people to be more critically aware about where we get our information, be that from an paper pamphlet or from a computer screen. It is my sincerest belief that we can, and will, learn from history to better our future.