Becoming-Witch. The Affect of a Herd

Abstract

This article explores the women's gathering known as the Sabbath in the context of the Scottish Witch Hunt (1563-1736), through William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth (1606). It proposes a political articulation of the figure of the woman/witch and reveals her impact on the historical time of men who seek power through war. Based on the notion of "becoming," proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, it is possible to propose a becoming-witch, resistant to the construction of women as "others"; at the same time, it reveals an affect that incorporates the "malevolent" character as the agency of power of the pack of women. By reclaiming the coven as "cahuín," according to Menard's interpretation of Mapuche society, the bonds between the women/witches during the gathering enable the production of a memory of revenge, driven by the spectral bodies of the women burned at the stake. The women persecuted during the Scottish hunt, by becoming witches, propagate a mystery steeped in sexuality that finds its counterpart in the ministry that legalizes the practice of violence against their bodies.