Antibiography

Alain Corbin's Life of an Unknown is a book that I return to time and time again. Not so much the biography of the 'unknown' 19th-century clog maker who Corbin chose at random in the archive, it is more akin to an anti-biography. Corbin's own conclusion is that he knows nothing of who Pinagot - …

Translating History

Guest post by Rachel Kaufman “But times do comeWhen the old shaping imageriesOf earth launch forth –In histories,Happenings past….”—“Greece,” Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) In his piece on John Ashbery’s and Karl Kirchwey’s translations, poet and scholar Eric Ormsby writes of verse translation: “In [a good] translation, a sharp scent of strangeness remains, as vague yet distinctive …

History as Creative Practice

Since the professionalization of historical research in the nineteenth century, there have always been different ways to present histories, and this plurality has intensified with the advent of new media and the internet. But the more recent creative turn among historians is not simply a question of different, more imaginative or more daring outputs. The problem …

Three Definitions of Creative Histories

As the collaboration phase of 'Creative Histories of Witchcraft' comes to an end, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the wider significance of the project as an example of the broader 'creative histories' movement. What are 'creative histories'? In a recent interview with Ann Curthoys, Kiera Lindsey has helpfully summarised two definitions. …

Guest Poets

Sappho, detail from fresco, Naples National Archeological Museum How do poets respond to historical newspaper reports of witchcraft? In April 2019, I invited 7 poets I’d met on Poetry School Online courses to respond to historical newspaper accounts of witchcraft. The poets were an international group - based in England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Canada and …

Such Small Pieces

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, …

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 …

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 …

(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 …

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 …