“We know that she could read: she learned how to pretend bewitchment partly by consulting books about such matters… (5)”
This quote stood out a lot to me, and I think I mentioned it in class. To me, this quote shows the effect of literature on real world events. This girl, because she was literate and had access to books, was able to strengthen her real world depiction of being possessed. This in turn created such a complicated situation that even the king became involved. She may not have been able to do this without access and the know how to read these books. Furthermore, it shows how the increased availability of printed text is affecting the world. In previous centuries, the youngest daughter of a family would likely not have access to multiple books about witchcraft and bewitchment.
I certainly agree with Matt’s comment. It is interesting the amount of power held by Anne simply because she was able to read in this time period. I remember a similar discussion was also posed when discussing widows and their ability to maintain a type of independence and power. Based on the discussion posed, I certainly think it would be interesting to further explore how the literacy may have been another type of outlet for women to wield power in a fairly patriarchal society.
This is a very interesting topic that I overlooked. I never thought to link literature to the case at all. Anne using literature to make her fits look more realistic would have been a very valuable resource, whatever her motive may have been. Her father could have been involved as well and potentially collected books for her.
I never really considered the overarching implications of literature in Anne’s story. If not for other sources that could show Anne and her scheming father and neighbors how she should act, their guise most likely would not have lasted as long. I think in this case, though, the literature was both a blessing and a curse. In hindsight, it did help Anne and her father trick people into thinking she was possessed. However, it was used to manipulate others and perpetuated Anne’s suffering.
I agree that the spread of literacy most likely encouraged the perpetuation of witchcraft rather than diminish it. Whereas before information on witchcraft passed greatly through word of mouth. Now anyone could conceivably learn about it through books which is different than any time period before now.
Indeed, it is heavily ironic that we normally take the introduction of the printing press to be a harbinger of modernity for Europe: but in fact, it may have actually, in some ways, spurred superstition more than countering it. The book makes an impression that witchcraft trials were actually fairly uncommon in the Medieval period, stating that “references to relatively infrequent trials are scattered through the court archives that survive from the Middle Ages” and that furthermore they could “inflict only minor punishments” (115). The booming of the popularity of the witchcraft sensation during the 16th and 17th centuries and the correlating seriousness associated with it, then, could be very much attributed to the rise of literacy.