The female rebel – the 15th century witch that never died. A transhistorical comparative content analysis between the 15th century’s Malleus Maleficarum and modern papal writings searching for the female ideal
Keywords:
Malleus maleficarum, hammer of witches, witch, female ideal, papal writingsAbstract
Malleus Maleficarum, Hammer of the Witches, published in 1486, was read all over Europe and North America and strongly contributed, together with the Bible, to shaping the idea of the woman. The question investigated in this article is whether or not we are still facing the same idea of women today in modern writings with a similar platform as Malleus. The sources chosen for comparative purposes are modern papal writings of the popes Saint John Paul II and Benedictus XVI. The image of the woman that the popes portray serves as a gender guide for a lot of people. The focus here the general discourse concerning the ideal woman in historical and current contexts with an ambition to unwind the identity creating aspect. Different markers that the sources use in their construction of the woman are identified. This article will answer how and through which markers the ideal woman is identified in Malleus Maleficarum and in the papal writings. The article will also show how similar markers can be identified in both source materials, thereby proving how an androcentric construction of the ideal woman is used in both.
References
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