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victoria_catherine_shaw 's review for:
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Allyson Shaw's Ashes & Stones taps into our modern day fascination with witch hunts, taking the reader on a journey through Scotland to some of the sites associated with this brutal chapter of Scottish history. Those looking for a comprehensive history of Scottish witchtrials will be disappointed as this book is by no means a compendium, but Shaw offers something different - an introspective and deeply personal reckoning with the societal and cultural legacy of historical gendered violence.
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One of the problems inherent in telling the stories of accused witches is that very little of their voices remain available to us today. The records that are accessible are often told through the prism of the accusations against the accused, making it difficult to understand them as real, multidimensional people. Shaw forges a connection with the women whose stories she shares by embarking on a journey through the Scottish landscape, visiting the places that they would have known, and reflecting on her own experience as a marginalised person in modern Scotland. It's an unusually personal approach to a subject that has garnered a lot of academic discission, but one that explains the resonance that this chapter of our history has with a lot of people today, and one that raises important questions that the broader discourse has tended to neglect, for example, whether a judicial pardon is appropriate and what the function of a memorial should be.
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Shaw's approach to history is not limited to what happened or why, but focuses instead on its meaning and how we collectively understand that history. Told from her perspective as a survivor of sexual violence, Shaw draws parallels between her experience and that of the Scottish women accused of witchcraft, exploring the relevance of the past to modern day misogyny and notions of masculinity. Through her personal interaction with the events of the past, Shaw illustrates the witchtrials as a living history with ramifications today, dealing with the topic both intelligently and sensitively.
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All in all, I highly recommend Ashes & Stones for some thoughtful discourse on a captivating, and often sensationalised, topic.
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One of the problems inherent in telling the stories of accused witches is that very little of their voices remain available to us today. The records that are accessible are often told through the prism of the accusations against the accused, making it difficult to understand them as real, multidimensional people. Shaw forges a connection with the women whose stories she shares by embarking on a journey through the Scottish landscape, visiting the places that they would have known, and reflecting on her own experience as a marginalised person in modern Scotland. It's an unusually personal approach to a subject that has garnered a lot of academic discission, but one that explains the resonance that this chapter of our history has with a lot of people today, and one that raises important questions that the broader discourse has tended to neglect, for example, whether a judicial pardon is appropriate and what the function of a memorial should be.
📚
Shaw's approach to history is not limited to what happened or why, but focuses instead on its meaning and how we collectively understand that history. Told from her perspective as a survivor of sexual violence, Shaw draws parallels between her experience and that of the Scottish women accused of witchcraft, exploring the relevance of the past to modern day misogyny and notions of masculinity. Through her personal interaction with the events of the past, Shaw illustrates the witchtrials as a living history with ramifications today, dealing with the topic both intelligently and sensitively.
📚
All in all, I highly recommend Ashes & Stones for some thoughtful discourse on a captivating, and often sensationalised, topic.
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Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury