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Kosmina Brydie: Feminist Afterlives of the Witch: Popular Culture, Memory, Activism.: Berlin: Springer 2023. ISBN: 978-3-031-25294-5. 262 Seiten, 120,99 €.
No full textConsidering her ubiquitous presence in modern-day political discourse and activism, in popular (media) culture and recent scholarly work, it’s fair to say that the witch is having a moment. An almost-archetypical yet deeply ambigue figure, the witch contains "multitudes" (p. 23) that are just as conflicting and diverse as their appropriation across the political and even feminist spectrum. How can one even begin to evaluate her cultural significance or to trace the many ways in which her history and memory contribute to her political vitality and her overall potential? What shapes and what are the witch’s afterlives?
In Feminist Afterlives of the Witch, Australia based feminist and literary memory studies researcher Brydie Kosmina undertakes the endeavor of addressing these questions by offering a genealogically informed study of the witch that reflects on the proliferating discourse from which she emerged through the lens of feminist memory practices and theory. In doing so, she discusses the political implications of the witch’s memory in correlation to popular culture and political/activist agenda. Kosmina specifically traces the figure’s response to feminist activism and scholarship, not only finding that the witch functions as an "engine for activism" (p. 112), but furthermore providing an intriguing investigation into how history, memory culture, and feminist politics are intertwined by discovering their intersections through the figure of the witch.
In undertaking a form of conjunctural analysis, the study’s methodical approach demonstrates a form of the very feminist activist memory practices and methodologies (cf. p. 80) it aims to explore. This "act of weaving"(p. xiii), as Kosmina calls it, functions as a tool for understanding the dynamic historical processes and crises that brought forth the witch and echoes the author’s consideration of the witch not only as a figure of (social) crisis but as a "figure woven together from the threads of any number of discourses, ideologies, and stories" (p. 4). The conjunctural analysis of these combined threads follows the temporalities of the witch’s afterlife in (pop)cultural memory, beginning with the theorization, writing and imagination of the witch’s history.
The second chapter "Witches and the Past" (pp. 35-74) roughly outlines the last two centuries’ historical and feminist scholarship on the (Western) witch’s past, starting in early-modern Europe. It offers an insight into her figure’s academic exploration and the milestones made in theorizing and historicizing her. It becomes evident, that there is no singular history of the witch, but rather histories that have been written by scholars and media cultures alike. However, this chapter’s foremost concern is to outline how early feminist writing outside the discipline of history imagined and produced histories of the witch, the witch craze and the witch hunts, that served feminist agendas at the time and though \u27proven\u27 or deemed historically inaccurate, astonishingly remained in our conception and memory of them today (cf. p. 61). Margaret Murray’s fertility cult thesis, originating from her 1921 book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, as well as Matilda Joslyn Gage’s famous referral to nine million witch deaths in her 1893 feminist classic Woman, Church, and State (pp. 58-60) — only to name two of the examples provided in the chapter —, substantiate this argument.
Following a leap from history to memory, the next chapter introduces its readers to the heart of the study (cf. p. 25), namely an interrogation of how individuals and collectives — writers, scholars, audiences, activists — utilize "memories of the witch in service of ongoing feminist activism" (p. 81) and how the witch functions as a feminist symbol or icon that is being called upon in moments of crisis or patriarchal violence (cf. p. 75). This third chapter "Witches and the Present" (pp. 75-104) reflects on the potential and productivity that today’s remembering of the witch holds, therefore elaborating on the "mechanics and intentions of feminist memory practices more broadly" (p. 61). Here, the book explicitly charts the reciprocal interactions between collective memory, storytelling, and gendered power dynamics for the first time, stating that activism/resistance, and memory practices "operate within a cultural milieu of commodified, nostalgic, and ideological recreations or simulations of the past" (p. 76).
These representations, as well as the everyday memory practices they embody or inspire, are situated in popular culture, especially in popular and mass media (cf. p. 82), and therefore must be addressed as media phenomenon. The study does exactly that by identifying four particularly significantly performed and represented \u27identities\u27 who accumulate one of the witch’s many afterlives under their names. Drawing on the spectral turn and Jacques Derrida’s notion of Hauntology, Kosmina conceptualizes these four afterlives of the witch in popular culture — a monster, a lover, a mother, and a girl — as "afterimages" (p. 25) that haunt the witch and equally are haunted by her. The very first afterimage, discussed in the chapter "Witches as Monsters" (pp. 105-142), proclaims the witch as a violent, disgusting, horrifying, yet powerful creature that demands to be feared and destroyed (cf. p. 106). Her overall monstrosity, which the chapter discusses with a focus on the monstrous-feminine body on the one hand, drawing from Julia Kristeva’s work on the abject, and on queer monstrosity on the other, embodies the inevitable deviance from what is considered to be \u27normal\u27 — or in some cases, even human. Monstrosity is thus to be understood here explicitly as an articulation of discourses surrounding sexuality, gender(ed) identity/expression and the body. Monstrous is what supposedly does not \u27belong\u27. Similarly, the second afterimage, as explored in the fifth chapter "Witches as Lovers" (pp. 143-182), associates the witch with a "diabolical sexual promiscuity" (p. 170) that refers to an insatiable lustand to sexual practices or desires deemed perverse, mythologically originating in the witch’s pact with the devil, entered through sexual consort. In addition to the most apparent connotation of this afterimage, the stigmatization and pathologization of female* and queer sexualities and bodies, the chapter’s deeper exploration of the coven, soulmates, and ‘chosen families’ clearly demonstrate how practices of romance, love, and community/solidarity that do not align with patriarchal heteronormativity and the idea of the nuclear family are demonized in this image. Building on these insights, the following chapter, "Witches as Mothers" (pp. 183-212), investigates the witch in the context of reproduction, maternity*, and parent-child-relations by identifying three main themes constituting this afterimage, the first two being the Anti-Mother and the Deadly Mother. Decisively linked to infertility, abortion (cf. p. 184) or infanticide — and often visualized in the \u27evil stepmom\u27 — these witches embody the antithesis of the mother* yet seem to be "defined by their maternity precisely because they cannot be maternal" (p. 192), as Kosmina points out. Her paradoxically coexisting representation as an all-powerful Mother-Goddess, though, only substantiates the inconsistencies and contradictions in the afterlives of the witch, that actually echo "the many images and self-images of feminism itself" (p. 7). The last afterimage discussed by Kosmina, is concerned with the identity of the witch that arguably mediates feminism in mainstream media most strikingly (cf. p. 232), holding great potential for the visibility of feminism yet being utilized in neoliberal and anti-feminist rhetorics and narratives. The seventh chapter "Witches as Girls" (pp. 213-242) explores how the "futurity and openness of girlhood is wound up in feminist memories of witches" (p. 213), finding that girl witches demonstrate a shift in the cultural presentability of feminism by proudly and openly declaring themselves feminists. However, these presentations fall victim to and are imbedded in capitalist and neoliberal agendas, that (re)produce them under the banner of \u27cool feminism\u27 or \u27girl power\u27. But because the girl itself is an emblem of transformation and transition, of becoming and unbecoming — adult, woman*, feminist —, it’s the girl witch’s indeterminacy or even vulnerability that holds her greatest feminist potentials and powers. Accordingly, especially "imagining the future subject" (p. 218) through the figure of the girl or teen witch functions as an engine of feminist activism that calls upon feminist \u27tradition\u27 and memory culture yet invites new thoughts and perspectives into their practices.
Concluding the book but staying with the future, the final chapter interrogates the feminist memory practices of remembering the witch displayed in the book as companions or cornerstones in search of "open utopianism"(p. 246), referring to utopian theory such as Ernst Bloch’s Principle of Hope. The remaining pages in the last chapter "Witches and the Future" (pp. 243-258) also briefly return to the events that inspired Kosmina to call upon the witch in her doctoral thesis and the book from which it emerged, as well as the crises that accompanied her while completing them. In the wake of Donald Trump’s second election and with Roe v. Wade overturned, the author herself powerfully remembers "as a feminist, with feminisms, and in a feminist way" (p. 248), thus explicitly placing her study in the cultural practices it aims to unravel.
Feminist Afterlives of the Witch is not only an interdisciplinary exploration of the witch’s figure in her own right, but also a profound meditation on the mechanics of feminist memory practices, how they are embedded and performed in popular (media) culture, and on the opportunities they create for "imagining more just futures" (p. 5). Kosmina therefore carefully attends to representations of witches in Hollywood movies and Netflix series, not to characterize how the witch is merely shown in popular media, but to observe how she embodies a way in which feminism and resistance are mediated, circulated, and reimagined across screen cultures and digital platforms. What makes this approach particularly powerful is how it allows a legendary figure to emerge not merely as a metaphor or a distant memory that is called upon, but as a dynamic site of cultural negotiation and political possibility. Here, the witch is given the space to reflect on the afterlives that haunt and have haunted her across centuries, and across generations of feminists and scholars to whom she owes her unique potential and her ever-lasting presence in our lives
Between Conflict and Cooperation: The Role of Formal Principles in Reconciling the Legal and the Political
No full textDas Verhältnis zwischen Politik und Recht ist seit jeher spannungsgeladen. Insbesondere stellt sich die Frage, welche der beiden Seiten im Konfliktfall Vorrang hat, denn es scheint sowohl für das Recht als auch für die Politik gute Argumente zu geben. Wie löst man also Konflikte, bei denen sich zwei gleichberechtigte Parteien gegenüberstehen? In diesem Beitrag plädiere ich für eine rechtlich fundierte, ausgewogene Lösung zur Klärung des Verhältnisses von Recht und Politik. Ich fasse Konflikte zwischen Recht und Politik als Kompetenzkonflikte auf, die einer rechtlichen Lösung zugänglich sind. Diese rechtliche Lösung basiert auf Abwägung. Zur Umsetzung dieser Lösung fasse ich basierend auf Robert Alexys Unterscheidung von Regeln und Prinzipien Kompetenzen als Regeln auf, die auf formellen Prinzipien basieren. Diese Prinzipien werden gegeneinander abgewogen, um eine ausgewogene Kompetenzordnung – und damit ein ausgewogenes Verhältnis zwischen Recht und Politik – herzustellen.The relationship between law and politics is traditionally characterised by an inherent tension. The question of which of the two entities has precedence when they conflict with one another is of particular significance, for there are good arguments for the primacy of either side. How can a conflict between two equal parties be solved? In this contribution, I advocate for a legally grounded and balanced solution for conflicts between law and politics. I interpret these conflicts as competence conflicts which are solvable by legal means. In order to provide a legal solution, I rely on Robert Alexy’s distinction of rules and principles. Based thereupon, I understand competences as rules which are governed by formal principles. These principles are balanced against each other. This way, an adequate order of competences – and with it an adequate relationship between law and politics – can be established
At a Distance from God’s Terrific Power? Potentials for Distancing in Ps 139
No full textDas Gottesbild von Ps 139 ist hoch ambivalent: ein Gott, der dem Betenden (zu) nahe kommt. Gerade die Möglichkeit, dieses Gottesbild in Pastoral, Liturgie und religiöser Bildung missbräuchlich einzusetzen (Tilmann Moser; Doris Reisinger), erfordert einen sensiblen Umgang mit Ps 139. Die Exegese kann ihren Beitrag zu einer Sensibilisierung leisten, wenn sie nicht nur auf die Identifikations-, sondern auch auf die Distanzierungspotenziale hinweist, die biblische Texte wie Ps 139 bieten. Durch die Möglichkeit zur Distanzierung wird die ästhetische Freiheit der Lesenden gewahrt. Zwei konkrete Distanzierungspotenziale sollen in diesem exegetischen Beitrag erhoben werden: die Psalmenüberschrift und die Positionierung Ijobs zum Gottesbild von Ps 139. Für Letzteres werden die starken intertextuellen Bezüge zwischen Ps 139 und Ijob ausgewertet.The image of God in Psalm 139 is highly ambivalent: a God who comes (too) close to those who pray. The potential for misusing this image of God in pastoral work, liturgy, and religious education (as criticized by Tilmann Moser and Doris Reisinger) necessitates a sensitive approach to Psalm 139. Exegesis can contribute to this sensitivity by highlighting not only the potential for identification but also the potential for distancing that biblical texts like Psalm 139 offer. The possibility of distancing oneself preserves the aesthetic freedom of the reader. This short exegetical study will examine two specific opportunities for distancing: the psalm’s heading and Job’s stance toward the image of God in Psalm 139. For the latter, the strong intertextual references between Psalm 139 and the Book of Job will be evaluated
書評：: 高晞 著《何魯之死：1831年震撼全球的醫療事件》
No full textHe Lu zhi si: 1831 nian zhenhan quanqiu de yiliao shijian 何魯之死：1831年震撼全球的醫療事件
[The Death of Hoo Loo: The Medical Event in 1831 that Shocked the Globe]
By 高晞 Gao Xi
北京市：中華書局 [Beijing: Zhonghua Publishing House], 2024. 270 pp.ISBN: 9787101166682He Lu zhi si: 1831 nian zhenhan quanqiu de yiliao shijian 何魯之死：1831年震撼全球的醫療事件
[The Death of Hoo Loo: The Medical Event in 1831 that Shocked the Globe]
By 高晞 Gao Xi
北京市：中華書局 [Beijing: Zhonghua Publishing House], 2024. 270 pp.ISBN: 978710116668
A New Greek Papyrus Fragment of an Account and a List of Toponyms from the Late Antique Herakleopolites
No full textThis article offers the first edition of a Greek papyrus (P.Vindob. G25372) containing part of an account on the recto and a list ofHeracleopolite place names, probably also part of an account, on theverso. The document may come from the context of a large estate. Thehandwriting styles of the recto and verso suggest a date in the late sixthor in the first half of the seventh century. The text was probably writtenin Herakleopolis.This article offers the first edition of a Greek papyrus (P.Vindob. G25372) containing part of an account on the recto and a list ofHeracleopolite place names, probably also part of an account, on theverso. The document may come from the context of a large estate. Thehandwriting styles of the recto and verso suggest a date in the late sixthor in the first half of the seventh century. The text was probably writtenin Herakleopolis
New readings in a Hellenistic Athenian honorific decree from Priene (I.Priene 45 = I.Priene B-M 99 = IG II/III3 1, 1239)
No full textThe subject of this article is an Athenian honorific decree, inscribed and erected at Priene, dated by previous editors to c. 200 BC on the basis of letter forms.The subject of this article is an Athenian honorific decree, inscribed and erected at Priene, dated by previous editors to c. 200 BC on the basis of letter forms
Thematisierung von Täterinnen im Rahmen von Gedenkstätten (‐pädagogik): Überlegungen im Anschluss an die Exkursion zur Mahn‐ und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück
Get PDFDer Artikel beschäftigt sich mit der Thematisierung von Täter*innenschaft in der Gedenkstättenpädagogik, mit besonderem Fokus auf der Rolle von Frauen als Täterinnen im Nationalsozialismus. Ausgangspunkt der gemeinsamen Ausarbeitung war eine Exkursion zur KZ-Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück. Dort wurden sowohl die Ausstellung „Im Gefolge der SS" als auch gedenkstättenpädagogische Ansätze intensiv behandelt. Gestützt auf die einschlägige Literatur und die vor Ort gewonnenen Erkenntnisse wird aufgezeigt, wie es gelingen kann, die Beteiligung von Frauen am nationalsozialistischen Regime differenziert darzustellen. Der Beitrag betont die Bedeutung eines komplexen, kontextualisierten Täterinnenbildes, welches historische Bedingungen, ideologische Hintergründe und patriarchale Strukturen miteinbezieht. Diese ambivalente Rolle zu reflektieren, eröffnet nicht nur neue Perspektiven auf Geschlechterrollen im Nationalsozialismus, sondern trägt auch zu einer gegenwartsbezogenen politischen Bildung bei. Schließlich wird deutlich, wie die Auseinandersetzung mit Täterinnen dazu beitragen kann, Gewalt- und Machtmechanismen in ihrer historischen und aktuellen Bedeutung besser zu verstehen und Stereotype zu hinterfragen
Biopolitics and necropolitics during the pandemic from a gender perspective: The case of contemporary Japan
Get PDFBiopolitics and necropolitics during the pandemic from a gender perspective: The case of contemporary Japan ジェンダーからパンデミック下の生政治・死政治を考える: 現代日本の場合Written by Takeda HirokoTranslation by Klemens Bardakji and Simon KaiserBiopolitics and necropolitics during the pandemic from a gender perspective: The case of contemporary Japan ジェンダーからパンデミック下の生政治・死政治を考える: 現代日本の場合Written by Takeda HirokoTranslation by Klemens Bardakji and Simon Kaiser
This paper discusses the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on many women in Japan, as evident in the rapid increase in the number of female suicides in 2020. This is due to structural issues in Japan and due to problems related to the capitalist economy and the governance system of the states that manage it. For this reason, this paper attempts to contribute to the discussion about “governmentality”, understood as a governance system aimed at maintaining and developing the continuous operation of the capitalist economic system by shaping and caring for individuals and the entire population, by introducing the concept of “necropolitics” presented by Achille Mbembe. Mbembes concept of “necropolitics” brings to light a point, which was not clearly addressed in existing discussions about “governmentality”: That in the process of the development of a capitalist economy so-called “abandoned people” have been created. Furthermore, this article examines the case of Japan as an advanced capitalist society, showcasing that neoliberalism develops, as a political project, in a distinct fashion, and examines why "biopolitics" and “necropolitics” progress in Japan, especially in relation to “gender
Rezension: "Woher wir kommen. Literatur und Herkunft" von Cornelius Mitterer und Kerstin Putz (Hg.)
Get PDFDie vorliegende Rezension beleuchtet den Begleitband Woher wir kommen. Literatur und Herkunft der gleichnamigen Ausstellung des Literaturmuseums der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (zu sehen von April 2025-Februar 2026). Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie soziale Herkunft, Klasse und Migration literarisch, insbesondere im Rahmen autosoziobiografischer und autofiktionaler Erzählformen, verhandelt werden. Die Ausstellung entfaltet ein thematisch und medial vielschichtiges Panorama, das literarische Beiträge, persönliche (Erinnerungs-)Objekte, theoretische Reflexionen und interaktive Formate umfasst. Diese eröffnen einen diskursiven Raum, in dem Herkunft als individuelles wie gesellschaftliches Konzept sichtbar werden kann. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt der „Galerie der Dinge“ sowie der transkulturellen Perspektive, die neben österreichischen auch internationale Autorinnen und Autoren einbindet. Der Begleitband überzeugt als eigenständiges literarisches Werk, das die museale kulturtheoretische Auseinandersetzung ideal vertieft. Insgesamt zeigt die Rezension, wie Literatur zum Medium gesellschaftlicher Selbstverortung wird und Herkunft nicht als statische Identität, sondern als dynamisches, erzählbares, verhandelbares Konzept erfahrbar macht.This review examines the exhibition and accompanying publication Where We Come From. Literature and Origin (original title: Woher wir kommen. Literatur und Herkunft) at the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library (April 2025-February 2026), focusing on how contemporary literature explores questions of origin, class, and migration. The exhibition presents a multifaceted discourse through literary texts, autobiographical objects, theoretical reflections, and participatory formats. Central to the analysis are autosociobiographical and autofictional writing strategies that connect individual experience with structural inequalities. Special attention is given to the “Gallery of Things,” and the transnational dimension of the selected authors. The review highlights the curatorial and editorial coherence of the project. The accompanying volume is an autonomous literary work that expands on the exhibition’s themes. Ultimately, the review highlights how literature can function as a space of social reflection, where origin is not a fixed identity but a dynamic and narratable interrelationship between multiple aspects
Prix Ars Electronica u19–create your world: Einreichschluss: 04. März 2026
Get PDFDas Team der MEDIENIMPULSE möchte Sie gerne wieder auf den Prix Ars Electronica mit der Kategorie u19–create your world aufmerksam machen. Junge Künstler*innen und kritische Weiterdenker*innen bis 19 Jahre, können am kreativen Wettbewerb für Kinder und Jugendliche teilnehmen. Sowohl Einzel- als auch Gruppenprojekte können bis zum 04. März 2026 eingereicht werden.The MEDIENIMPULSE team would like to draw your attention again to the Prix Ars Electronica with the u19–create your world category. Young artists and critical thinkers up to the age of 19 can take part in the creative competition for children and young people. Both individual and group projects can be submitted until March 4, 2026