[...]knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge ='lgc'>==opens='lgc'>='lgc'>==> a gap in knowing (="trms">specifically, ‘who’)


line of accusation that was quite common in the early ="trms">modern period ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> “the desperate search for the cause of what was other wise an unexplained illness or misfortune was frequently the catalyst for ="trms">specific witch="trms">craft accusations between friends, acquaintances, and often between family ="trms">members themselves”
16th century ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> this violence now bore the sanction of both secular and ="trms">religious institutions (='lgc'><='lgc'>== peasant ="trms">complaints of maleficium زيان ='lgc'><='lgc'>== human beings have been suffering misfortune, illness, and death long before the power of the witch was felt during this time)

Dominican order ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> aggressively promoting the cult of the virgin, to the status of the “perfect” woman ='lgc'>{elevating the status of sexual ="trms">neurosis to a virtue='lgc'>} ='lgc'>=/= lustful credulous ="trms">nature of common women (who were often as="trms">sociated with the temptations of Eve)

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='strcls'>*conflicted status of women='strcls'>*
="lsts lst1">•in ="nms">Häxan ='lgc'>--through='lgc'>='lgc'>--> sternly patrilineal visual motifs (condescension ='lgc'>+ bemusement ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> frail ='lgc'>+ hysterical)
="lsts lst1">•in ="nms">ajayeb ="trms">bestiary ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->


(="nms">Häxan's) witch hunters act in ="trms">accordance with their own procedures for investigating truth and falsehood and not simply out of malice, fear, or stupidity

the inquisitor priest/friar (within the realm of their own assumptions about the ="trms">world) were dedicated to investigating and verifying the claims ='lgc'>[of the accused witch) ='lgc'>=/= (mainstream depiction of inquisitors as) gullible, fanatical, overtly misogynistic

(during the witch craze) ='strcls'>**desire to believe ='lgc'>=/= simple belief='strcls'>**
despite the unbelievable scope of demonic power, the inquisitors must believe that what the young maiden is reporting is possible


='strcls'>****important changes in the legal ="trms">systems in europe well into the 14th century='lgc'>: proffering a formal indictment against another individual required the plaintiff to submit to an accusatory form of criminal procedure. (derived from Roman law) this procedure presumed such offenses as ='strcls'>*="trms">matters between the accused and accuser='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> ='thdf'>the idea that “crime” was a ="trms">matter between ="trms">society and the accused did not exist (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the ="trms">presentday distinction between criminal and civil ="trms">complaints meaningless)
raising a formal ="trms">complaint required='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•the accuser to furnish proof of the allegation
="lsts lst1">•to submit to severe penalties agreed in advance if the judge was unconvinced of the ="trms">complaint's merit
='strcls'>*it was complex, expensive, and very risky to enter into this formal framework in order to address disputes or everyday injustices='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> most ordinary people did not do so, choosing instead to pursue local and less formal modes of redress

15th and 16th century ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> this procedure changed dramatically (with the emergence of the witch in europe)
="lsts lst1">•witch was understood as an ="trms">agent of satan
="lsts lst1">•="trms">responsibility of civil and ="trms">religious ="trms">authorities to protect pious christians (from a power that would overwhelm the faithful regardless of their individual acts, intentions, or beliefs)

inchoate suspicion (of the fearful, the resentful, the spiteful) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> reporting ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> inquisitors (="trms">positioned as experts) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> take this suspicion forward administratively ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*impersonal ="trms">sociological sense='strcls'>* (='lgc'><='lgc'>-- an ='thdf'>example of Weberian rationalization)

to suspect someone of maleficium was not new ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (in witch accusations) ="trms">authorities were now eager to act on suspicions in dependently


unresolved sexual desires ='lgc'>+ such passion would be redirected in pathological, ="trms">perverse manner ='lgc'>==="nms">Häxan='lgc'>='lgc'>==> witch accusations

the film emphasizes the crucial role sex played in discerning what constituted witch="trms">craft and its status as a knowable ="trms">category of (malefic) human practice


a great deal of demonological thinking was devoted to justifying the fact that civil and Church officials, despite their fears, by and large were not bewitched


following satan's idiom...

="nms">Häxan's tortured ="trms">relation to “the truth”
the ="trms">question of ="trms">="trms">empirical certainty and reenactment haunts the status of the film as evidence

='strcls'>*acting the ideal type breathes life into the emptied, cliched figure='strcls'>* ='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Christensenrelying on the fact that the truth of the witch will take its most visible form by acting her out ="trms">mimetically (='lgc'>~= Christensen chooses to “play” satan using his idiom to breathe life into his witch)
="lsts lst1">•Flaherty knew that the ="trms">visceral force of Nanook of the North depended on the felicity of his Inuit ="trms">interlocutors reenacting themselves




Christensen seems to be offering a cure for the ='strcls'>*secularized christian blindness='strcls'>* at the heart of ='strcls'>*="trms">positivist human ="trms">science='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> his audience is pulled in “through a lens of ="trms">science ='lgc'>=/= as misguided inquisitors”


working with ='strcls'>*="trms">figurative givens of witches and demons='strcls'>* ='lgc'>--="trms">formulate='lgc'>='lgc'>--> visual thesis (about uncanny, mobile power)

etchings into a ="trms">material
carving outlines into the image of figures that have been hiding in plain sight


beautifully ="trms">composed tableau of the torture chamber
static plane of the tableau ='lgc'>=/= sense depth signify an open or free space

="large lg1" stl="font-size:137%"> totality of (depicted) violence ='lgc'><='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">composed alterity of the s="trms">cene's sty="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listic cor="trms">respondence between accused and inquisitor

(Christensen's ="trms">method of) oscillating rhythm between tableau and face
="prgrph">-suppressing perspective and depth of field in favor of a continuous ="trms">affective movement as expressed in the face
='lgc'>--="ppl">Baxstrom='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="nms">Häxan is not grounded in a setting here; it is grounded in the forms of life ="trms">present in the shot

sense of corporeal alienation from herself ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> inhabit a script not her own ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> critical to the “success” of witch="trms">craft confessions

witch stereotype='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•="trms">Wild Ride
="lsts lst1">•pact with the Devil solemnized through sexual ="trms">intercourse-
="lsts lst1">•cannibalism
="lsts lst1">•دیگ cauldron as the locus of the rite
="lsts lst1">•='strcls'>*massed, coordinated, female ="trms">nature of witch="trms">craft='strcls'>*


judicial machinery of a witch trial required evidence of criminal acts that (by de="trms">finition) could not be witnessed


in ="nms">Häxan
="prgrph">-the power of cinema to witness exceeds that of the witch hunter
="prgrph">-what it does is “worse” than ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rigging the truth ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> it aligns itself (not with a concept of truth or the real but) with the power of the witch


(="nms">Häxan and many criminal ="trms">story films) works through ="trms">instruments of knowing rooted in the ='strcls'>*dynamics of the confession='strcls'>*
='at'>#="nms">ajayeb ="trms">storytelling

...="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clumsily rendered, the w="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riggling demons reflect an ="trms">interesting set of variations to the witch stereotype, both ="trms">ontologically and visually
(Maria giving birth to demon ="trms">children)


Thomas Aquinas's theorization of the ='strcls'>*virtual bodies='strcls'>* (of angels)
="prgrph">-angels do not need bodies for their sake but for ours ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> un="trms">natural couplings could produce ="trms">children, but that the bodily essence of devils would rule out the possibility that these ="trms">children would themselves be demons


16th century ="trms">author primarily concern with Satan's ability to manipulate and ="trms">pervert ="trms">language (in="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluding ="trms">erotic ="trms">language)


="trms">wild flowing hair of the women ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a common visual ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphor for sexual promiscuity and disorder


images of canniba="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listic night witches were explicitly a demonological variation on long-standing popular conceptions

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xxxxxx



="large lg4" stl="font-size:111%"> persistence of witch="trms">craft
how witch="trms">craft might still exist as more than just one of many choices available on a personal empowerment “menu”
="prgrph">-how rituals pertaining to magic came to be understood as a problem of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge

='strcls'>*magic binds forces that would otherwise overflow life='strcls'>*
a great subterranean need to “bind” forces that would otherwise exert themselves with impunity and without any greater explanation or meaning
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> enacting a de="trms">historification of a form of life that would otherwise be overwhelmed by the brutal timeliness of ="trms">historical being
="ppl">Baxstrom > de ="ppl">Martino, Janet

making the precarity of our ="trms">presence an object of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge

(firm un="trms">questioning belief ='lgc'>=/=) local doubt ='lgc'>--sustins='lgc'>='lgc'>--> witch="trms">craft (in Buli -Bubandt)
...face off with a persistent, seemingly eternal, spectral threat

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Rolley

an anatomical (not geographical knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge, diabolical atlas) demonological understanding

Renessancian ="trms">world encounters ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> geo
='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]Renaissance='lgc'>: the age of demonology, the age of ="trms">cosmograph[...]