Bad, mad and wanton: Reclaiming sexual agency for real female historical figures in witch literature, an autoethnography

The published works that form the basis of this PhD are a series of fictional writings in the field of witch literature written over a period of eight years between 2016 and 2024. All the works are written by the author, and are either published commercially (VoiceMap, Gutter Magazine, Manilla Press, Orkana Forlag) or have been performed professionally (Cymera Festival, Audacious Women’s Festival). Two of the published works have been translated into other languages: The Witches of Vardø is available in French, Spanish, Croatian, Ukrainian, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish as well as English internationally while Raising Their Voices with Tenderness is published in Norwegian and English. Considering the sexual agency of real female historical figures in historical fiction, the accompanying critical reflection is an autoethnographic study focused on the characterisation of three real women involved in the Finnmark witch panic in 1662/3 and their relationship with the author. The significance of the writings lies in how they show the character transformation of these figures developed with advanced interpretations of historical research along with greater awareness of the purpose of feminist methodologies within the writings. Further to this, the works invite a consideration of the impact of the era of witch hunts on contemporary society and popular culture and investigate themes of victimhood, empowerment, intersectionality, sex-positivity, the political witch, queer historiography, the menopause, and collective identities. An autoethnographic approach is taken in the analysis of the writings, with the specific application of qualitative research methods of data collation, analysis, and presentation of results. Since the study is in the form of Creative Practice Module, the result is an interaction between theoretical conjecture and creative intervention with the production of new works. This study demonstrates new knowledge in the representation of real female historical figures in witch literature, and the application of qualitative autoethnographic coding methods to creative writing to close the gap between research-led creative practice, and practice-led research within academia.