Interactive Monologue in Witchcraft Pamphlets’ Prefaces (1566-1621)

Abstract

Informed by Goffman’s concept of footing (1981), this study explores multiple voices and speaking roles that a writer may take up in the preface of witchcraft pamphlets, along with their pragmatic functions. The qualitative analysis of thirteen witchcraft pamphlets (1566-1621) explicates the ways in which pamphleteers consistently shift into and depart from three speaking identities (authorial, interlocutory, and character roles). Such distinct patterns strategically serve to promote the reception, and avoid refutation, of the main text.