“Double Trouble”: Queering and Disrupting Genre Conventions through Witches in Early Modern Drama

Plots containing witches and acts of witchcraft were particularly popular on the English stage because of their theatrical potential. Performing incantations, ritualistic spells, and making people and objects fly, among other things, allowed playwrights and theatre companies to exploit theatrical mechanisms and push the limits of the theatre, providing awe-inducing scenes for their audiences. Moreover, as witchcraft prosecutions and convictions peaked from 1560 to 1630, the English stage became a space where common people could experience and witness acts of witchcraft, which were otherwise prohibited and condemned by the law. Thriving on the sensationalism of witchcraft and exploring the ideas and morality of their era, playwrights capitalized on these historical trends in their works.

This dissertation argues that the presence of witches on the stage was an integral part of early modern English theatre that helped shape the conventions of different genres and transform theatre itself. By looking into early modern English histories, tragedies, and tragicomedies, the project explores the inherent queerness of witches and their disrupting natures. Within histories, witches are used to disrupt the act of history-making and queer English history. In tragedies, the witches push the limit of the genre by becoming physical embodiments of fate, destiny, and failed justice, and they use their powers to lead men into their seemingly inevitable tragic ends. Lastly, in tragicomedies witches disrupt gender norms, society and politics in a way that allows the playwrights and their audiences to imagine new futures. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that witches on stage are agents of unregulated sexualities and power, capable to disrupting the heteronormative while also effectively queering the theatre.