Which, What, Witch? : A Digital Religion Study on Swedish Instagram Witches, Identity and Representation

Sammanfattning

This study is conducted through blogosphere studies and uses discourse, and narrative analysis to investigate how representations of contemporary Swedish Witches’ identities are articulated on Instagram. The material consists of 73 posts and 99 images. The findings are that three distinct narratives (remembrance, reclaiming, re-enchantment) constitute a narrative plot around which the subjects construct their identities. Additionally, three discourses or identities were identified in the material, highlighting negotiations between religious, secular, and post-secular discourses in hypermediated third spaces. Through the theory of hypermediation, mediations of the witch and, significantly, the witch trials are understood as an important narrative link between a utopian past and the present. This link creates a sense of urgency, evoking strong emotions and connecting a traumatic past and the loss of ancient knowledge with current social injustices. Intersecting post-secular, secular and religious discourse, the witch trials become an important site in the order of discourse regarding the Witch, as they create both a discursive site for connection and contestation. Lastly, the study suggests a temporal aspect to hypermediation theory in relation to religious studies and “imagined communities,” as hypermediated spaces such as Instagram allow a collapsing of not only space, but time.