Reading the Salem Witch Child

Kristina West is an affiliated member of the Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media at the University of Reading, UK. Her research focuses on American literature, children’s literature, and critical theory. Her first book, Louisa May Alcott and the Textual Child, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020.

• Introduction: The child as witch.- 1. ‘Bitch witches’: Reading ‘affliction’ in the Salem witch narratives.- 2. The case of Dorcas Good: accuser and accused.- 3. Childhood, witchcraft, and absence.- 4. Motherhood and witchcraft in Salem.- 5. Ann’s Story.- 6. Fictionalising Salem: The reconstructed child.- 7. Conclusion: Salem in the twenty first century.

“West in her Reading the Salem Witch Child: The Guilt of Innocent Blood sheds light on how to interpret the roles of children and families in the Salem witch trials. … West demonstrate that discerning the functions of the ordinary components of witchcraft, sometimes hidden in plain sight, can enhance our understanding of this complex subject. These two recent works help to contextualize childhood and material culture within the larger history of magic and witchcraft in early New England.” (Tricia R. Peone, Early American Literature, Vol.57 (2), 2022)