Lessons for the Ladies

One of the common themes in this week’s readings is that of female instruction. Some of the narratives touch explicitly on the topic of education (reading, books, etc.) and others simply offer examples of the “ideal” woman, but they all instruct, in one way or another, women’s behavior.

In your posting, please discuss the types of instruction and education you see occurring in these texts. What are women encouraged to do? Not to do? According to the texts, how far does a woman’s education extend?

Please remember that your posting is due by Thursday at 8am and your response to your peers by Friday at 5pm.

Times They Are A-Changin'

In recent weeks we’ve read a variety of texts revolving around the “Fallen” woman. From Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World to “A Very Surprising Narrative of a Young Woman, Who Was Discovered in a Cave” (The Panther Narrative), women have been condemned, executed, converted, and sentimentalized.

Please discuss the changes you see developing in these texts. How has the agenda of the author seemed to change? How has the conception of an American audience changed as well? Have we seen revisions to the manner in which women are represented in print culture?

Please remember that your posting is due by Thursday at 8am and your responses to your peers due by Friday at 5 pm.

Young Readers, Take Heed!

Our readings this week feature supposedly “normal” women who simply fell of the path of morality and were forced to pay the consequences. Readers of these curious texts—especially young readers—were encouraged to believe that this “fall” could happen to anyone who dozes off in church, “runs out at night,” or mingles with the wrong crowd. In fact, these earlier moral indiscretions are more fully explored in the text than the alleged infanticides. These women are portrayed as representative figures in order to warn the rising generation of Americans not to disobey parental or civil authority.

How are these women similar or dissimilar to women in contemporary America? To focus more closely, how are they similar of dissimilar to students at TCU? Clearly women today have certain advantages and means to control their reproductive systems, but is it possible that women are still stigmatized running out at night with lewd men? We’ve since outlawed hanging for such “crimes,” but have we developed other ways to punish women for these activities? Please discuss these issues and ideas in your weekly posting.

Remember that your posting is due Thursday at 8am and respond to 3 of your peers by 5 pm on Friday.

Responding to Rountree's "New Witch of the West"

This week, we’d like you to find and read a critical article and respond to it in your posting. Kathryn Rountree’s 1997 Journal of Popular Culture article, “The New Witch of the West: Feminists Reclaim the Crone,” explores a feminist movement to re-examine “the witch and the goddess as images of womanhood” (Rountree 211). This article is available, full-text, from the MLA International Bibliography database, and we talked about accessing it in class.

According to Rountree, the women participating in feminist witch movement claim that, rather than existing as opposites, the witch and the goddess are one and that ordinary women can self-identify with both. Rountree is not advocating for the feminist witch lifestyle, nor is she demeaning it. Rather, her essay charts her process of understanding this movement and researching its participants. She begins (like we did in last week’s posting) by tracking her exposure to witchcraft and witches, leading us through her current understanding of the feminist witch social movement.

Please respond to this essay, incorporating your own developing understanding of witches and witchcraft. What are you reactions to this movement? Have you seen elements of this process of reclaiming agency in your own life?

Please remember to post by 8am Thursday morning and respond to 3 of your classmates’ posts by 5pm on Friday.

Wonders of the Invisible World

In his lengthy discussion and condemnation of witches and witchcraft, Cotton Mather predicts, “Witchcraft will not be fully understood, until the day when there shall not be one Witch in the World” (131).  His prediction is curious, for both early American culture and contemporary, mainstream American culture.  For early American people, Mather’s statement allows for an inexplicable, unceasing presence of evil in the world—a belief that could be (and was) wielded irresponsibly and detrimentally.   As contemporary American readers, Mather’s prediction causes us to reexamine mainstream portrayals of witches and other supernatural beings, indicating that we might still be trying to understand both witchcraft and the supernatural.  Cable TV shows like Supernatural, Charmed, The Ghost Whisperer, Bewitched—even Marge is accused of being a witch on The Simpsons Halloween special!—exploit our fascination with witchcraft in contemporary terms.  We can also think of movies like The Sixth Sense, Practical Magic, The Blair Witch Project, or The Craft, all dedicated to exploring and understanding witchcraft in contemporary times and all pointing to the idea that our society may still need the presence of an inexplicable power.  Consider also that Wicca and various forms of paganism and natural religion are among the fastest growing beliefs today.

As you continue to re-read and digest Mather’s musings (and convoluted syntax), consider possible encounters you may have had with witches, witchcraft, or the supernatural.  These “encounters” can and should be broadly defined—textually, visually, spiritually, personally, or theoretically.  You may also consider how terms and phrases used in Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World have translated into modern rhetoric (for example, “going on a witch-hunt” usually means some sort of campaign of persecution directed against a person or a group holding unpopular or unorthodox views).  Can you think of any “witch-hunts” that you have observed, or heard of?  Also, consider Mather’s concept of evil.  He and his contemporaries believed that evil was an active agent, an entity known as the devil, that sought to corrupt the world.  How do we explain or understand the existence of evil in our contemporary world?

Please remember that your post in response to this prompt is due by Thursday (9/4) by 8:00 am, and your 3 responses to your classmates are due by Friday (9/5) at 5:00 pm.