The Wayward Witch of the West: tracing the classical witch in Western literature from Homer to Charmed

<p dir="ltr">This thesis is an exploration of the witch and witchcraft in literature from its earliest inception in the ancient Greco-Roman world, through the medieval period, until its current culmination in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Stereotypes and cultural attitudes are often transmitted through contact with other cultures, whether through physical contact or textual transmission, and often contribute to the development of those concepts within the receiving culture. I aim to examine how the concept of the witch, and witchcraft, has been formed across various time periods, and explore the depth to which it is impacted by the transmission of previously held images and understandings. Moreover, in establishing how and why changes were made to the image of the witch in these time periods, the impact of societal and individual context on the reception of an image can assessed. </p><p dir="ltr">By understanding the influence an inherited or transmitted image might have, especially on an historically contentious topic such as witchcraft, we are able to separate ourselves from inherited bias. Historically, witchcraft has shown a negative image of powerful women, and this idea was given authority through the transmission of Greco-Roman, and then medieval texts. In understanding how these images are given this authority, and how they use it to form their own authority on the topic of witchcraft, we are able to challenge this inherited bias. In doing so, we open ourselves to the idea of powerful, and magical, women as multidimensional figures who operate in any manner they please.</p>