Peryferyjne (de)konstrukcje. Czarownice i ich potencjał demaskatorski z perspektywy krytycznych ujęć filmowych
Peripheral (De)Constructions. Witches and Their Unmasking Potential from the Perspective of Film Criticism

Summary/Abstract: This article proposes a reflection on the witch as a figure that reveals the social construction of femininity and Otherness. It is based on the discussion and interpretation of selected films evoking the figure of the witch – Witches by Benjamin Christensen (1922), The Witch. A New England Folktale by Robert Eggers (2015), I Am Not a Witch by Rungano Nyoni (2017), and Mirrors and Feathers by Caia Chengije (2017). On the basis of the first production, the author discusses the fundamental tropes of the discourse on witches in the European discourse, treated as a reference point for the problematizations carried out in the three contemporary films from peripheral positions, embedded in different local traditions. The analysis of selected works serves to indicate the social contexts set in motion by the figure of the witch, related to the production and perception of femininity in androcentric optics. The author points to the ambivalence of such images, seeing in the witch a potential for critically unmasking patriarchal discursive oppression.

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