Genderising the Salem Witchhunt (Feminist Piece) - Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum's Salem Possessed and The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol Karlsen

This paper will discuss and contrast the works of both Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum's Salem Possessed and The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol Karlsen. These papers contrast in their reasoning behind the Salem trials and the subsequent timing of it in 1692. It must be clear that whilst Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum's discuss a whole series of mitigating factors that leads to the trials in Salem the authors do not …

…complete justice to the specific timing (and reasoning) of the Salem trials in 1692. References Karlsen C, The devil in the shape of a woman; Witchcraft in Colonial New England, New York, Norton, 1987 Boyer P & Nissenbaum S, Salem possessed; the social origins of Witchcraft (1974), Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1974 Further Reading Gragg L, The Salem Witch Crisis, New York, Praeger, 1992 Reis E, Damned Woman: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1970