Woman in White
This ghostly woman usually appears wearing a pale dress and is known for wandering near rivers or roads at night.
What is a Woman in White?
Citation: Valk & Sävborg, Liminal Storyworlds of Ghosts.
In most readings, witches symbolize this cultural fear.
What is the fear of female autonomy
Reference: Class lecture on witch archetypes
Medusa is most famous for this act
What is turning people to stone?
Monstrous women are often portrayed as going from beautiful to hideous to represent this concept
What is punishment for female autonomy/ control of women?
Reference: Lecture on women of the supernatural
In Vodou ceremonies, this happens when a spirit temporarily enters someone’s body.
What is possession?
Many Woman in White stories show her mourning this kind of loss.
What is the loss of a child or lover?
Citation: Valk & Sävborg, Liminal Storyworlds of Ghosts.
Federici argues that witch hunts were tied to the rise of this economic system.
What is capitalism?
Citation: Federici, Caliban and the Witch.
Based on Cohen’s “Seven Theses,” this thesis best explains why Medusa continues to reappear in modern culture.
What is Thesis III, the monster never escapes?
A reanimated body that returns to trouble the living is called this.
What is a revenant?
Citation: Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death.
This is the difference between vodou and voodoo.
What is region (Haiti vs New Orleans)?
What is the reason the Woman in White often appear near water?
Water symbolizes tragedy or a place of death in many renditions.
Reference: Common motif discussed in class folklore readings
This medieval book claimed women were more easily influenced by the devil and fueled European witch hunts.
What is the Malleus Maleficarum?
Citation: Kramer & Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum.
Many scholars say Medusa symbolizes society’s fear of this.
What is female power or female sexuality?
Citation: Cohen, Monster Theory.
Placing stones or coins in the mouth of a corpse was meant to prevent this.
What is rising from the grave/returning as a vampire?
Citation: Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death.
Fernández says Vodou spirits carry this kind of cultural memory for Haiti.
What is ancestral memory?
Citation: Fernández, Birthing a Nation (Vodou chapter).
This typically motivates the Woman in White to haunt the living.
What is a betrayal or child neglect?
Citation: Valk & Sävborg, Liminal Storyworlds of Ghosts.
According to Taylor et al., witchcraft beliefs led to attacks on children with albinism in this region.
What is Sub-Saharan Africa/ Tanzania?
Citation: Taylor et al., Children with Albinism in Tanzania.
Modern feminist versions of Medusa show her not as a villain but as this kind of figure.
What is a survivor or someone shaped by trauma?
Reference: Contemporary feminist analyses of Medusa.
Some female revenants return not to harm people but to finish this type of personal business.
What is caring for family or home duties?
Citation: Murgoci, “The Vampire in Romania.”
This female lwa (spirit) in Vodou represents motherhood, beauty, and fierce protection.
Who is Erzulie?
Citation: Fernández, Birthing a Nation (Vodou chapter).
The Woman in White challenges traditional portrayals of passive female ghosts by
What is seeking justice/resolution?
Reference: Class analysis of female agency in ghost narratives
The Salem woman who was enslaved and accused early in the trials was later reimagined as powerful in modern retellings.
Who is Tituba?
Citation: Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.
In many classical sources, Athena’s punishment of Medusa considered contradictory or unjust for this reason.
What is victim blaming?
Citation: Ovid, Metamorphoses Book IV; S. Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece (1995).
This is how visual representations of monstrous women reinforce cultural narratives about femininity.
What are exaggerated features like hair, teeth, or eyes to mark them as "other" while simultaneously sexualizing them?
Citations: Dini (2016); Pekol & Alban (2023).
To understand Vodou women accurately, we must use this kind of perspective (one from inside the culture).
What is an emic perspective?
Citation: Davis, Passage of Darkness.