Carol karlsen biography
Carol F. Karlsen (born 15 December ) is an American historian....
Professor Karlsen taught undergraduate and graduate courses in history, American culture, and women's studies.
Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature
An Undergraduate Course, University of Virginia
Spring Semester
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol Karlsen () astutely focuses attention upon the female as witch in colonial New England, thus allowing a discussion of broader themes regarding the role and position of women in Puritan society.
Karlsen's work, which has been well-received, focuses on the position of accused witches as largely females placed in precarious social and economic positions, often because they stood to inherit, had inherited, or lost an inheritance in property.
Karlsen departs from the idea that women accused of witchcraft were boisterous beggars, a depiction "tantamount to blaming the victim" (Nissenbaum) and instead points to these "inheriting women" as being socially vulnerable in a patriarchal culture.
Karlsen's work is not merely of historical significance to the Salem outbreak of In fact, "that year remains something of an anomaly" (Nissenba