Delivery method: Online learning with tutor support. 

This module gives an overview of the history of witchcraft beliefs and the witch trials across early modern Europe, with a particular focus on how the trials unfolded in Wales, where wise-women and supposed witches were rife.

Course Description

This module gives an overview of the history of witchcraft beliefs and the witch trials across early modern Europe, with a particular focus on how the trials unfolded in Wales, where wise-women and supposed witches were rife. Students will be shown texts (from archival material relating to witchcraft to contemporary poems), art work and music, with the aim of deconstructing depictions of the witch figure across literature and history. Students will then have opportunity to develop their own creative responses, or to present their findings through a non-fiction assignment. This module is suitable for anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft beliefs and / or a desire to develop their creative writing skills.

Writing the Witch: Exploring the Witch Creatively and Historically can be studied as a stand-alone course and it is an optional course for the Certificate of Higher Education in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.