Magic and Disability in the Early Modern World

'Magic and Disability in the early modern World' argues that early modern witchcraft (discourse, visual imagery and trials) in Scotland, England, Ireland and Am erica
demonised, devalued and disqualified non-normative bodies and
minds. Using interpretative frameworks of monstrosity and deformity,
while working within wider religious and medical understandings of
disability, physical, cognitive, and sensory difference was read as inner
corruption, sin or divine punishment or medicalised and pathologised
as something to be fixed. The witch’s body became monstrous thro ugh
association with demonic creatures and physical transformation, while
visible physical difference offered sought-after physical evidence of
witchcraft. Intersecting with social status, reputation, and gender,
disability therefore explains why some individuals were accused of
witchcraft. Disability could also hamper a suspect's ability to defend
themselves during interrogation and trial. Their victims, the bewitched,
however, used witchcraft accusations to navigate discriminatory
narratives and treatment of disabling conditions and to find way s to
cure or mitigate them.