Contribution to Book
Witchcraft and Wonder in The Winter's Tale
Essays in Renaissance Historiography,
(2007)
Abstract
The Winter’s Tale is constructed to generate an experience of wonder as Hermione’s statue comes to life. Audiences are meant to share what Leontes calls “The pleasure of that madness” (5.3.73). This revelatory madness is magical undoing: it dissolves the paranoid paroxysm at the outset of the play that crystallizes ideas about witchcraft, even as Hermione's play death and "resurrection" purge her of associations with witches.
Disciplines
- Arts and Humanities,
- Criminal Law,
- Cultural History,
- English Language and Literature,
- European History,
- European Law,
- Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,
- History of Gender,
- History of Religion,
- Law and Society,
- Legal,
- Literature in English, British Isles,
- Religion,
- Religion Law,
- Social and Behavioral Sciences,
- Social History and
- Women's Studies
Publication Date
2007
Editor
ed. Anne Lake Prescott and James Dutcher
Publisher
Univ. Delaware Press, 2007
Citation Information
Kirby Farrell. "Witchcraft and Wonder in The Winter's Tale" (Newark, Del:Essays in Renaissance Historiography, (2007) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kirby_farrell1/17/