Examining the Uncanny

Witches and the uncanny are enjoying greater popularity than ever when we examine today’s popular culture. That shouldn’t be surprising; after all, most of us are familiar with a teen-age witch named Sabrina, Buffy the vampire slayer, and a young wizard we know as Harry Potter. This is nothing really new when we remember that witches and the uncanny have an important place not only in legend and history, but in many parts of culture, including literature, sociology, religion, and even law.

“People have always been fascinated by witches,” she says. “It’s interesting how our views about them have been influenced over time by changing religious and scientific beliefs about nature and the supernatural.”

Centuries ago witchcraft was part of popular beliefs as well as a preoccupation of scholars, lawyers, and theologians. The people feared that if something happened for which there wasn’t a simple answer, witchcraft was suspected. Events that had terrible outcomes and couldn’t be explained were sometimes thought to be the work of witches. Scholars explored white and black magic in their search for a greater understanding of the occult, secret forces that they thought governed the universe.

“Suspected of magical powers with which they could influence weather, fertility, childbearing and people’s health, witches were feared to the point that they were seen as a real danger to peoples and communities,” says Professor Williams.

People believed that witches entered into a contract with the devil which bestowed upon them the power to do evil, making people sick, killing cattle, causing miscarriages, impotence, or preventing conception.

Because of the general belief in and fear of their ill deeds, witches were caught, brought to trial, and if found guilty, frequently burned at the stake. In Europe, most trials took place between 1580 and 1750. In all, approximately 70,000 people, mostly women, were found guilty of being witches and were executed.

“Suspected witches were interrogated and tortured,” Professor Williams says. “At the time, torture was a legal and controlled means of interrogation which had as its goal the witch’s voluntary confession of her crimes. As time moved on, the limits put on torture were relaxed and the witch was tortured until she confessed. This change in legal proceedings was permitted because witchcraft was defined as an “exceptional crime” that demanded exceptional interrogative procedures.” It took until the early 19th century for torture to be removed from most trial laws as a means of investigation.

Today the fascination with witches, ghosts, and vampires continues unabated, as does the passion for the uncanny and occult in movies, television, and in print.

“People are fascinated by areas of the unknown, in death, and the afterlife, in notions of fantasy and the struggle between good and evil,” she explains. “We see this phenomenon in the fascination with the Harry Potter series, Anne Rice’s, the popularity of the Lord of the Rings, and the many books, movies, and TV that deal with witches, vampires, and ghosts and their special powers. These books and films and TV shows make a lot of money, so obviously this fantasy is appealing to people.”

Professor Williams’ interest in such topics is cultural, historical, and literary. She does not trace witchcraft to its roots, nor is she a practicing witch, as students sometimes think.

“When I teach courses on this topic, I usually have a really full house at the beginning of the semester,” she says. “There are a lot of misconceptions going into it. Students expect information about past and present cultic practices. What they do find, is much challenging reading and great discussions about issues of cultural and historical marginality, persecution of the Other, the changing image of the monster, and abut fears of the unknown.

“And yes, I always get asked if I’m a witch,” she laughs, “and no I am not.”

Professor Williams’ interest began when she was working on her Ph.D. in comparative literature and medieval studies. That work led to an interest in studying the historical witch phenomenon, history of science, and the uncanny. She has published on these subjects and recently, together with Professor Stone, translated a volume on witches and witchcraft by the French jurist Pierre de Lancre (1612) from French into English. Because of her interest in translating literature she become part of a team that created a graduate certificate in Translation Studies in Comparative Literature.

Williams’ work reaches across many boundaries, literature (she works in German, English, French, and, occasionally Latin), history, the history of science, gender and culture studies. The great connectivity across all of Arts & Sciences areas supports her work and gives her access to many diverse faculty and library resources. “In all that we do we create an opportunity for students to work across and within the disciplines, whether it’s bringing something new to a class or offering a course that might be outside our usual home department.”