La Voz De La Hechicera: De La Narración Oral Al Registro Judicial

Abstract Halfway between orality and writing, the statement of the women accused by the Inquisition of practicing sorcery raises interpretive difficulties that are hard to resolve. The analysis of the confession made by Vicenta Graçia Almenar before the Inquisition of Valencia (1623) will allow us to detect some of the factors that mediate between the discourse of the woman and the text produced by the Inquisition: aspects such as the transcription process (for example, the presence of errors and spelling slips introduced by the notary), the context of emission (which determines the use of a characteristic formulaic language) or the discursive typology (the narration of experiences and magical practices), among others, will shed new light on the construction of the defendant’s speech and on its transformation into a judicial text.