Narratological Approach To Witchcraft Trial

The first article in the course reader is entitled ‘A Narratological Approach to Witchcraft Trials: A Scottish Case’ by Liv Helene Willumsen. The article focusses on the influence the scribe has in documenting witchcraft trials in the 1600’s. The author makes it clear on page nine and throughout the remainder of the article that the scribe can play a key role in colouring the case as they wish, as well as describing people in what could be a biased manner. However, she stipulates that the scribe does not have the authority to alter the key facts surrounding the case. Therefore, we can assume that the narrative taking place is an accurate representation of the trial itself. In regards to the explanatory and explanatory approaches seen …show more content…
The author describes Bessie’s trial as well as other trials of witches that resulted in execution. One detail of the reading that really stuck out at me can be found on page 36. The author states that there are serious problems relating to the records or witchcraft trials. While the story was told by the accused, it is recorded by another member of society who has the ability to skew the elements of the story. This point was also touched upon in Willumsen’s article. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that witchcraft trial records are inaccurate to a degree due to the presence of …show more content…
She chose to display the people involved and facts of the trial in a story-like form, beginning with ‘once upon a time’ (Henderson, 31). However, later in the document the author takes on a exploratory approach by comparing and contrasting folklore in other parts of Europe and North America and thus attempting to explore the relationship between different cultures. Overall, between these two articles I believe the Willumsen reading was more successful than the Henderson article as Willumsen used both the exploratory and explanatory approach which allowed for the reader to understand the surface level elements of the case as well as the deeper level. One thing that really made an impact on me was the impact of the person documenting the case in both of these readings. The legal system at the time was tainted with bias as those who played the role of the scribe were often involved in the interrogation process of the accused. Do you think, if we were still in these times, there would be a way to eliminate this bias or did it perhaps play a functionalist role in the court