The Witch

This reader addresses the popular resurgence of the political identity of the witch as a figure of power and feminist protest, expanding the area of study from early modern history and into political science and philosophy. Bringing together established classic essays on the witch with emerging new scholarship, this volume takes up a variety of pressing questions that are essential to feminist political theory. What power dynamics operate within these new forms of identification and commodification of the witch? What exactly is being claimed and reclaimed when one identifies as a witch today? What is the relationship between witches and the category of “woman”? What roles do race, class, and gender play in the figure? And how does the witch help us conjure up new approaches to – and new canons for – both philosophy and political theory? Through these essays and questions, this volume introduces tensions, critiques, and concepts that provide a mirror for larger conversations happening within feminist political theory.