Damned Women by Elizabeth Reis

Damned Women by Elizabeth Reis

In her analysis of the cultural construction of gender in early America, Elizabeth Reis explores the intersection of Puritan theology, Puritan evaluations of womanhood, and the Salem witchcraft episodes. She finds in those intersections the basis for understanding why women were accused of witchcraft more often than men, why they confessed more often, and why they frequently accused other women of being witches. In negotiating their beliefs about the devil's powers, both women and men embedded womanhood in the discourse of depravity.Puritan ministers insisted that women and men were equal in the sight of God, with both sexes equally capable of cleaving to Christ or to the devil. Nevertheless, Reis explains, womanhood and evil were inextricably linked in the minds and hearts of seventeenth-century New England Puritans. Women and men feared hell equally but Puritan culture encouraged women to believe it was their vile natures that would take them there rather than the particular sins they might have committed.Following the Salem witchcraft trials, Reis argues, Puritans' understanding of sin and the devil changed. Ministers and laity conceived of a Satan who tempted sinners and presided physically over hell, rather than one who possessed souls in the living world. Women and men became increasingly confident of their redemption, although women more than men continued to imagine themselves as essentially corrupt, even after the Great Awakening.

Damned Women reflects the new cultural history in its exploration of magic, folk religion, and Puritan ideology at the interstice of the Salem witch trialsThrough her concentration upon the ideological constructions of Satan and evil, Reis charts the transition from pre-Enlightenment to rationalist thought—her discussion enhanced by the incorporation of literary texts and striking visual images.... Intrigued by women who confessed to witchcraft and women who accused other women, Reis embarks upon a sophisticated exploration of the gendered language and interconnected ideology that constructed witchcraft, Satan, evil, and the human self.... Reis's arguments are intriguing... Damned Women is exciting and provocative.... Damned Women makes a significant contribution to the scholarship about gender and religion.

* Journal of Interdisciplinary History *

ELIZABETH REIS is Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Oregon. She is the editor of Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America, American Sexual Histories, and Dear Lizzie.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780801486111
ISBN 10	0801486114
Titel	Damned Women
Autor	Elizabeth Reis
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Cornell University Press
Erscheinungsjahr	1999-01-21
Seitenanzahl	240
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.