Last week, I was in the 1860s. Today, I am mostly in HR meetings. How can we think in different times, and in different places, the historian asks? In such small pieces. In moments walking up the hill to work, between seeing students and committee meetings, in the minutes affords by online systems, by emails, … Continue reading Such Small Pieces
The Demon ‘Marc’
(from Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire infernal) Sometimes, the temptation is just to let the stories speak for themselves. TRIBUNAL CORRECTIONNEL DE BORDEAUX[1] Hearing of July 23rd. Methods to ensure the return of an unfaithful husband - Spells - Scams amounting to 60,000 francs. The accused is a woman in her fifties. If she has no … Continue reading The Demon ‘Marc’
Witch, falling
Falling Woman, Ernst Barlach, 1912 What do witches do? What are the verbs of witchcraft? From the project’s beginnings, I’ve found the actual witch of our sources elusive. I’m not sure s/he has an identity. I don’t think s/he can be hunted down in a single location. The historical cases we’re reading contain suspicions of … Continue reading Witch, falling
(Re)producing Historical Realities
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ellie Chadwick to the Creative Histories of Witchcraft team as a producer for upcoming events. Ellie writes: In her book The Archive and The Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, Diana Taylor points out that performance is ‘not simply an object of analysis’ but also functions as ‘a way … Continue reading (Re)producing Historical Realities
Embodied understandings
Bodily Empathy In past blogs, I’ve written about writing and empathy, and the creative task of empathising with people we may consider ‘bad’ and behaviours that seem abhorrent. This week, I’m going to explore how empathy might be engaged through physicality and embodiment. In order to research how performance might be able to transmit knowledge … Continue reading Embodied understandings
Getting the Words in Order
A set of techniques that we return to time and again on the project are 'cut ups'. We take a source - often a newspaper story, although we have tried witness depositions, and medical reports - and take it apart. Sometimes literally. I have lost count of the number of pairs of scissors I have … Continue reading Getting the Words in Order
Bad Feelings
Staying With Trouble I’ve recently been at the TaPRA conference (Theatre and Performance Research Association). I was in the working group ‘Bodies and Performance’ for the conference, and the focus of the working group was to consider negative affects, after the work of the theorist Sianne Ngai. The call for papers for this working group … Continue reading Bad Feelings
