List of female witches and sorceresses in SF
Witches and sorceresses are people with magical powers, usually gendered female. They may be distinguished from gendered male terms ("wizard" or "sorcerer") or distinguishe by type of magic ("hedgewitch", "trained wizard").
"Witch" is sometimes used to describe anyone with power, or women who don't fit the mold for how they live. For instance, in science fantasy, people with apparently scientifically explained psychic powers may be described as witches by a primitive society that doesn't understand the source or scientific nature of the power. "Witch" may also be used as a euphemism for "bitch" or used to describe any older or single woman.
Witch may carry a connotation of someone who has powers on their own, or gets their powers from some supernatural source ("the devil"). Sorceress may carry a connotation of someone who has been trained to use magic, or "sorcery".
List of works featuring witches & sorceresses
- Marion Zimmer Bradley.
- Brian Daley, The Doomfarers of Coramande and sequel - a kick-ass sorceress, who does commune with dark powers but is sympathetic nonetheless; interesting with eternal sorceress and her normal-lived offspring
- David Eddings. Polgara in the Belgariad series.
- Ellen Galford. The Fires of Bride
- Elizabeth Hand. Waking the Moon.
- Marie Jakober. The Black Chalice (2000)
- Graham Joyce. Dark Sister (1999) [suburban housewife becomes a witch]
- Peg Kerr. The Wild Swans (1999) - AIDS story & retelling of old fairy tale. With real witches, and real witch-hunts, although not of real witches.
- Melissa Kwasny. Modern Daughters and the Outlaw West (Spinsters Book, San Francisco, 1990). A small Wyoming town is infested with quirky lesbians, ghosts, and politics. The witchery is subtle, practical, perhaps even spiritual ... Although it does break out into the open occasionally.
- Fritz Leiber. Conjure Wife (1943) (Secret society of, well, probably all women, are witches who really determine the success or failure of the men. Creepy & well-written.)
- Gregory Maguire. Wicked (Oz retelling)
- Rebecca Ore. Slow Funeral
- Rachel Pollack. Godmother Night
- Anne Rice. The Witching Hour ("witches" are people with the psychic ability to commune with or control spirits)
- Diana Rivers. [[Daughters of the Great Star.
- The Hadra
- H. C. Turk Black Body (witches are another species)
- John Updike. The Witches of Eastwick. I wouldn't really call this feminist per se, but it's lots of fun and there are memorable female characters who are sexual beings and have some feminist concerns.
- Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1893-1978. Lolly Willowes or, The Loving Huntsman (1925) - a middle-aged English spinster accepts Satan in this amusing and engrossing work ... Highly recommended. (witches are spinsters who may or may not have relations with saturnine visitors)
Anthologies
- Shahrukh Husain, editor. Daughters of the Moon: Witch Tales From Around the World. (illustrated by Liane Payne). Boston, London: Faber & Faber, 1993.
- Shahrukh Husain, editor, The Virago Book of Witches (1994)
- Susan M. Shwartz, editor. Hecate's Cauldron
Movies
Many, many movies. But a few notable ones:
- "Bell Book and Candle" (1958) Kim Novak & her family are Manhattan witches. "Bewitched" the TV series took a lot of cues from this story initially.
- "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) with an excellent cast (Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher, Veronica Cartwright, and Jack Nicholson as, perhaps, the Devil).
- "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003 TV series) -- numerous witches, particularly Willow and Tara.