This volume presents the first results of the PRIN 2022 research project involving the universities of Siena, Turin, Naples “L’Orientale” and Florence. It examines how otherness was constructed in non-canonical, vernacular texts addressed to popular audiences in Northwestern Europe from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. The essays explore how theological and demonological ideas were absorbed and reshaped through exempla, street literature, chronicles, and sermons, often featuring magical, wondrous, or witch-like figures. Special attention is given to the gendered portrayal of women and to the interplay between elite and popular discourses in shaping perceptions of marginality.
Monsters, Sorcerers, and Witches of Northwestern Europe: The Medieval and Early Modern Construction of Otherness in Literature / Letizia Vezzosi. - ELETTRONICO. - (2025), pp. 5-149.
Monsters, Sorcerers, and Witches of Northwestern Europe: The Medieval and Early Modern Construction of Otherness in Literature
Letizia Vezzosi
2025
Abstract
This volume presents the first results of the PRIN 2022 research project involving the universities of Siena, Turin, Naples “L’Orientale” and Florence. It examines how otherness was constructed in non-canonical, vernacular texts addressed to popular audiences in Northwestern Europe from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. The essays explore how theological and demonological ideas were absorbed and reshaped through exempla, street literature, chronicles, and sermons, often featuring magical, wondrous, or witch-like figures. Special attention is given to the gendered portrayal of women and to the interplay between elite and popular discourses in shaping perceptions of marginality.
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