Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Vexed with Devils
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Cincinnati
STATE: OH
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.artsci.uc.edu/faculty-staff/listing/by_dept/history.html?eid=gasserea *
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017008587
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017008587
HEADING: Gasser, Erika
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100 1_ |a Gasser, Erika
670 __ |a Vexed with devils, 2017: |b E-CIP t.p. (Erika Gasser)
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Brown University, B.A.; Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
California State University, Sacramento, assistant professor, 2007-11; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, assistant professor of history, 2011–.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Erika Gasser is an academic who studies the history of gender in colonial New England and early modern England. She has worked as assistant professor of history in the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies department at the University of Cincinnati since 2011. Before that, she was an assistant professor at California State University in Sacramento. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history and educational studies from Brown University and a Ph.D. in history and women’s studies from the University of Michigan.
In her 2017 book, Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England, part of the “Early American Places” series, she focuses on demonic possession, witchcraft, and religion from the late sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century. Gasser compares witchcraft and demonic possession as expressed in the Anglo-American world of early modern England and in colonial New England between 1564 and 1700. While accusations accompanied physical phenomena and social issues, such as vomiting, visions, speaking in tongues, and refusing to pray, Gasser contends that it was male patriarchy that drove witchcraft and possession accusation, judgment, punishment, and execution. As the majority of witchcraft cases were perpetrated against women, it was subversion of social order and threats to patriarchal power and masculine ideals rather than religion that drove witchcraft hysteria. Instead of a unifying definition and description of possession or witchcraft, often individual villages and towns determined their own indications depending on their male authorities.
Using five case studies, Gasser describes through possession narratives how men of the times struggled to advocate for power for themselves. The men who were accused of witchcraft were either not dominant enough over their female relatives, such as with John Samuels in Warboys, England in 1593 who was executed along with his wife and daughter, or were too strict with them, as with George Burroughs in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Other cases involved Samuel Harsnett versus John Darrell in a demonic possession case in England; Robert Calef, writer of More Wonders of the Invisible World in 1700, who exposed the tyrannical New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather in New England; and continuity and patriarchy at the turn of the eighteenth century.
As an example of struggle for masculine power, Gasser presents a quotation from Mather who in displaying arrogance extolled how he and his prominent family knew best how to guide his area of New England as a proper godly colony. At the same time he called himself saintly, yet with Puritan doubt, struggled with his unworthiness. However, after the much publicized Salem witch trials in 1692, his tone changed dramatically.
Online at the Page 99 Test, Gasser commented that “Despite the overwhelming association of witchcraft with women, I argue that manhood was a crucial factor in the articulation of judgment upon both the women and men who were implicated in these incidents.” In the book, Gasser examines the role of gender in published accounts during the period that described symptoms of possession, described cases of men who were accused of witchcraft, and those who published possession propaganda.
Gasser wrote on the From the Square Website, “The harrowing experiences faced by the historical suspects serves as a reminder of humans’ capacity to pursue enthusiastically the condemnation and execution of those we fear.” Admitting that the book is academic, “anyone seeking a fresh perspective on, and deeper understanding of, such possession accounts will not be disappointed,” said a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Writing in Times Higher Education, Matthew Reisz noted that witchcraft accusations still continues throughout the world even today, so Gasser’s book offers “many lessons to be learned from this strange and unsettling history.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2017, review of Vexed by the Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England, p. 60.
ONLINE
From The Square, https://www.fromthesquare.org (October 25, 2017), Erika Gasser, “Haunted Histories.”
Page 99 Test, http://page99test.blogspot.com/ (Aug 11, 2017), Marshal Zeringue, review of Vexed With Devils.
Times Higher Education, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ (July 6, 2017), Matthew Reisz, review of Vexed with Devils.
Erika A Gasser
Title: Associate Professor of History Affiliate faculty in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Office: 320E McMicken Hall
Tel: 513-556-2173
Email: erika.gasser@uc.edu
Erika Gasser researches the history of gender in colonial New England, early modern England, and the Anglo-Atlantic. Her work focuses particularly on ideas of manhood in writings about demonic possession, witchcraft, and religion from the late sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century. Her book, Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England, was published by New York University Press in 2017. She teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, such as "Colonial America," "Gender in Britain and North America, 1600-1850," and "Witchcraft and Religion in Early America."
Education
Ph.D., University of Michigan (History and Women's Studies).
B.A., Brown University (American History and Educational Studies).
Experience & Service
Work Experience
2011 to Present, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH.
2007 to 2011, Assistant Professor, California State University-Sacramento, Sacramento, CA.
Courses Taught
15-HIST-721 LIT OF AMER HIST I
15-HIST-462 SEM FOR HISTORY MAJ
15-HIST-463 SEM FOR HISTORY MAJ
15-HIST-300 INTRO HIST THINKING
HIST 1001--U.S. History to 1877
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Print Marked Items
Vexed by Devils: Manhood and
Witchcraft in Old and New England
Publishers Weekly.
264.22 (May 29, 2017): p60.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Vexed by Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England
Erika Gasser. New York Univ., $35 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4798-3179-1
In her first book, Gasser, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, offers a close read of
published accounts of demonic and witchcraft possession in England and New England between the years
1564 and 1700, focusing on the gender dynamics at play in these narratives. Gasser uses five case studies
involving both men and women to demonstrate how early modern beliefs about manhood shaped
accusations of witchcraft. An accused witch, for example, might be judged guilty if he failed to control the
female members of his household, as was the case with John Samuels in Warboys, England, who, along
with his wife and daughter, was executed for witchcraft in 1593. Yet if a man exerted too much control, that
was also grounds for conviction, as seen in accounts of the 1692 trial of George Burroughs in
Massachusetts. Though regional differences can be found, Gasser argues that demonic and witchcraft
possession cases throughout the Anglo-American world functioned as a form of social policing during the
early modern period. The book is academic in scope, but anyone seeking a fresh perspective on, and deeper
understanding of, such possession accounts will not be disappointed. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Vexed by Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England." Publishers Weekly, 29 May 2017, p.
60. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A494500763/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5ebce946. Accessed 23 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A494500763
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Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England
Erika Gasser
New York University Press
Although much has been written about witchcraft, suggests Erika Gasser, “scholars remain vexed with devils, or at least vexed by them, because they prompted conflicts that resist stable interpretation”. In this book, she explores “possession narratives” from both sides of the Atlantic in the period from 1564 to about 1700. While the vast majority of witches were women, responses to them are also highly revealing about masculine ideals because they “regularly invoke manhood in their attempts to assert control”. Given that suspected witches are still prosecuted in many countries, there are many lessons to be learned from this strange and unsettling history.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017
Erika Gasser's "Vexed with Devils"
Erika Gasser is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati.
She applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England, and reported the following:
Vexed with Devils analyzes published cases of demonic possession and witchcraft-possession (when those who suffered the spectral torments associated with demonic possession also named a witch as the cause) in England and New England from approximately 1564 to 1700. It examines the role of gender in published accounts about men and women who performed the symptoms of possession, and analyzes particular cases of men who were accused of witchcraft by possessed accusers or who published possession propaganda. Despite the overwhelming association of witchcraft with women, I argue that manhood was a crucial factor in the articulation of judgment upon both the women and men who were implicated in these incidents.
Page 99 features a long quotation by Cotton Mather, the eminent New England Puritan minister, from the introduction to one of his books in which he expresses his determination to publish his own book alongside those of greater men, in an elegant combination of arrogance and humility: “Go then, my little book, as a Lackey to the more elaborate Essayes of those learned men.” That sentence always makes me smile, because I can’t help but be captivated by Mather’s complexities. He believed that he and his family knew how to order New England as a proper godly colony and dared to hope that he was among God’s predestined Saints, but the Puritan denial of assurance meant that he constantly struggled between an overweening pride and an awareness of his unworthiness. Mather wrote that in 1689, just before the well-known Salem witchcraft trials in 1692, and despite his reaching for modesty the tone broadcasts his confidence. I have found it very interesting to observe how his tone changed over the next few years.
The long quotation speaks to a very specific moment, and so in that sense the first half of the page may not represent the book as a whole, but later on in the page I reiterate one of its central tenets, that “Mather drew upon a tradition of English witchcraft-possession writing, from the controversies of the late sixteenth century to the cases that had emerged across the seventeenth century. Despite fluctuations in the volume of printed cases, and the dramatic political, religious, and social turmoil of the period, claims to interpret preternatural phenomena remained closely implicated in claims to patriarchal authority and order.” I go on to explain that at the cultural level, manhood and womanhood continued to matter for all participants in possession cases in ways that show considerable continuity rather than the decline of credulity we expect and associate with the Enlightenment. In the end, I do think that page 99 gives a kind of encapsulation of the book, with the added bonus of a window into Cotton Mather’s particular struggles.
Learn more about Vexed with Devils at the NYU Press website.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posted by Marshal Zeringue at 12:05 AM
Haunted Histories
October 25, 2017
https://www.fromthesquare.org/haunted-histories/
—Erika Gasser
For Halloween enthusiasts like myself, the entire month of October offers an opportunity to enjoy classic horror films and to plan costumes and decorations. And in Salem, Massachusetts, the site of America’s most infamous witchcraft trials in 1692-1693, the entire month is dedicated to “Haunted Happenings”—a multifaceted Halloween festival that can be as entertaining for visitors as it can be trying for locals. The festival rests on the uneasy relationship between the history of the witchcraft prosecution that originated in Salem Village (now Danvers), Salem Town, and spread throughout Essex County near the end of the seventeenth century, on the one hand, and more modern images of witches that often bear little resemblance to their suspected historical counterparts. But whatever one thinks of “Haunted Happenings” its popularity demonstrates the depth of the nation’s preoccupation—notably reinforced by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953)—with the idea of historical witchcraft as a lens through which to understand ourselves. It is hard to resist the urge to find a stable truth about “what really happened” in 1692, especially if that truth allows us to draw conclusions that feel pertinent to our ongoing preoccupations with the potential for abuses of official power. There are so many invoked Salems in popular and social media that it can be difficult for the historical subjects of 1692 to remain squarely in focus for very long.
In my recent book with NYU Press, Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England, I follow in the footsteps of many historians who have tried to understand Salem according to a particular set of questions. But rather than attempt to argue for one among various possible causes for the outbreak, I emphasize the ways that witchcraft in Salem—which in several ways was atypical—nonetheless represented considerable continuity with English cases that emerged across the long seventeenth century. In addition to studying published cases of witchcraft, I consider related instances of what I call witchcraft-possession: cases in which afflicted persons acted out some of the stylized symptoms of demonic possession but also named a human intermediary as the cause. Furthermore, by focusing on manhood in a phenomenon that was overwhelmingly associated with women, I sought to determine the extent to which a gendered analysis might continue to offer new insights about the way power was wielded in these complex circumstances. Ultimately, I found that manhood mattered a great deal for individuals of both sexes who acted as if they were possessed, for men accused of being witches by the possessed, and men who published possession propaganda; gender’s inconsistent but pervasive influence helps to reveal the persistence of patriarchy, that principle for the organization of power to which both transatlantic societies remained committed.
Consider for example the downfall of the Reverend George Burroughs who, because of his sex and potential claim to religious authority, was one of the most infamous of those executed for witchcraft in 1692. Historians like Bernard Rosenthal and Mary Beth Norton have uncovered many fascinating aspects of Burroughs’s case that likely contributed to his downfall, from his suspect religious orientation to his connections to military disasters on the Maine frontier. Many have also noted his boasting and cantankerous nature, and the accusations that he was cruel to his wives. Female accusers who performed some of the symptoms of possession reported that apparitions of those dead wives appeared in their winding sheets (shrouds) to report that he had murdered them, looking very “red and angry” at Burroughs as they cried out for vengeance. Male accusers, who did not see apparitions or otherwise act as if possessed, relayed how Burroughs had boasted of knowing more than was revealed to most, and had demonstrated what seemed to be preternatural strength for one of his stature. Both sets of accusations served to strengthen the case against Burroughs, which some ministers viewed as particularly, even overwhelmingly, strong. But we can also see that the testimony from both sets of accusers presented Burroughs as failing to embody a proper manhood because he showed a deficiency of some key qualities, such as husbandly care, and an excess of others, notably knowledge and strength. I argue that Burroughs was “unmade” as a man and into a witch because of these excesses and deficiencies, which is not quite the same as claiming that his conviction indirectly or implicitly feminized him.
The question of the pervasive association of witchcraft with womanhood ought to remain in our minds, however, even when discussing men who were executed for the crime. We need to keep both women and men in view during these unusual but revealing moments of crisis because their downfalls each contribute to our understanding of how gender’s flexibility allowed it to be invoked by all parties in conflicting ways. Ultimately, it was power that determined the fates of those accused in England and New England, and so for that reason it does appear to make sense that we continually look to witchcraft trials to tell us something about our current fears. Entertainment aside, the harrowing experiences faced by the historical suspects serves as a reminder of humans’ capacity to pursue enthusiastically the condemnation and execution of those we fear. To recognize this potential in ourselves and to grapple with its implications is truly the scariest thing about the season.
Erika Gasser is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati and the author of Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England (NYU Press, 2017).