Witches Brew

From centuries of witch panics and persecutions to fairy tales, feature films, and some of our most iconic works of art, the specter of the witch looms large in Western cultural history. Witches are typically cast as evil, demonic, and insatiable. In Witches Brew, Maria Stehle examines the presence of witch figures and their relationships to food, appetite, cooking, and brewing. Using the witch to work through the many forms of violence still imposed onto bodies, she charts a path forward that brings sustenance, community, and joy.

Interdisciplinary and deeply feminist, Witches Brew follows witches and their appetites throughout history, literature, art, and film, including fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel; the Salem Witch Trials; the art of Gustav Klimt; and even the popular Netflix series Wednesday. Through insightful analysis, Stehle argues for ways to think about indulgence, enjoyment, and even bingeing without characterizing them as problematic or wicked. In so doing, she suggests a counterimage: a celebration of the brewing woman whose appetites and witchery might disrupt the brutalities of capitalism, sexism, racism, and other hierarchies.