Goddesses, dreamers, and witches: the politics of women in The Wild Hunt

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dc.contributor.advisorVaughan, Theresa A., 1966-
dc.contributor.authorStephens, Melanie
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMusgrove, Margaret Worsham, 1962-
dc.contributor.committeeMemberAppleby, Jessica
dc.date.accessioned2024-06-26T14:58:51Z
dc.date.available2024-06-26T14:58:51Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractThe Wild Hunt is a folklore motif with variants including a group of beings traveling through the night air with a central figure leading them. When we consider the motif of those who were involved in, and specifically those who led the Wild Hunt, a gendered difference becomes more evident during the Late Middle Ages. Existing studies tend to ignore the gendered context and the myriad ways women's existence is objectified, instrumentalized, marginalized, and erased in the motif. This leaves us not understanding why the motif was popular in early penitentials and the political, economic, and cultural reasons why the motif shifted in the particular way it did. This paper examines how European leaders used this motif to divide men and women of the lower classes and ensure the expropriation of women's agency for the benefit of protocapitalist accumulation of labor. I will situate women within European culture throughout the Middle Ages by looking at legal documents, church records, and literature about women and discuss those presentations through an intersectional feminist lens to explore the political cause and function of the gendered difference. When examined at the macro level, a pattern emerges which seems to suggest a correlation between the economic changes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that necessitated the subjugation of women. This confirms my position that the use of the motif was intentional. Understanding exactly how women have been historically instrumentalized as a way to support developing Western capitalist structures is necessary as America's economic shift into late-stage capitalism and the concurrent disintegration of women's rights to reproductive health care remind us of similar events centuries before. Further research might include the digitization of medieval records, more complete demographic analysis, records of patronage, revealing historical biases as well as ethnographies that might reveal information about the early believers.
dc.identifier.oclc(OCoLC)1442350345
dc.identifier.other(AlmaMMSId)9983040412002196
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11244/340441
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author, who has granted UCO Chambers Library the non-exclusive right to share this material in its online repositories. Contact UCO Chambers Library's Digital Initiatives Working Group at diwg@uco.edu for the permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of this material.
dc.subject.keywordsFeminist
dc.subject.keywordsPeasant revolts
dc.subject.keywordsWild Hunt
dc.subject.keywordsWitchcraft
dc.subject.keywordsWitches Sabbath
dc.subject.keywordsWomen
dc.subject.keywordsFolklore
dc.subject.keywordsWomen's studies
dc.subject.lcshWomen--Europe--Social conditions--History--To 1500
dc.subject.lcshFolklore--Political aspects--Europe--History--To 1500
dc.subject.lcshWomen in literature--History--To 1500
dc.subject.lcshEurope--Economic conditions--History--To 1500
dc.thesis.degreeM.A., Liberal Studies
dc.titleGoddesses, dreamers, and witches: the politics of women in The Wild Hunten_US
dc.typeAcademic theses
thesis.degree.grantorJackson College of Graduate Studies

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