The Witch Who Is Not One: The Fragmented Body in Early Modern Demonological Tracts

Abstract

This article investigates the witch's fragmented body in Renaissance demonological literature. The witch's gendered body is the locus of disturbingly obsessive propaganda, religious rhetoric, and sexual fascination. In demonological tracts, the witch, accused of killing and dismembering her victims to serve the devil and to perpetuate evil, is also imagined in bodily pieces. Demonologists and judges examined the body parts of the accused as a means to ascertain guilt; the presence of birthmarks or skin discolorations substantiated claims of sorcery. Theorizing bodily “dis-integration” as an integral part of the mythology and history of witchcraft, this essay compares the witch's grotesque parts to examples of corporeal fragmentation in Old and New Testaments.

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