In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial

Chollet, Mona

ISBN 10: 125027141X / ISBN 13: 9781250271419

Published by St. Martin's Press, 2022

About this Item

Condition: Good â Used book with some visible wear. May include stickers on the cover, wear or absence of the dust jacket, wear to the spine or inside cover, slight corner curling, minor staining, and wear along the fore edge. All orders are shipped via UPS Mail Innovations and may take up to 10 business days from the initial scan to be delivered.

Seller Inventory # INWV.125027141X.G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 125027141X
• ISBN 13: 9781250271419
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.

Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America, witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and repressed?

Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and persecuted: the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions.

With fiery prose and arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural, In Defense of Witches seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who live their lives on their own terms.

About the Author

Mona Chollet is a Franco-Swiss writer and journalist. In Defense of Witches is her first book to be translated into English. She lives in Paris, France.