RLG222H1

Witchcraft, Religion and the Powers of the Occult

Picture a witch in your mind’s eye. Do you see them as male, female, or somewhere between the two? Young or old? Good or evil? This course goes beyond common Western assumptions about the character and morality of witchcraft to show how its study, its representation and its practice contribute in vital ways to our understandings of religion, the occult, morality, gender, sexuality and science. We move across Europe, Africa, Melanesia and North America to shed light on a controversial figure in numerous societies and literary traditions, past and present. Depictions of witches, wiccans, sorcerers and magicians are analyzed and compared. At the same time, the course should make you ask yourself: What is rational, what is ethical—and ultimately, what is human?