How can researchers study magic without destroying its mystery? Drawing on a collaborative project between the playwright Poppy Corbett, the poet Anna Kisby Compton, and the historian William G. Pooley, this Element presents thirteen tools for creative-academic research into magic, illustrated through case studies from France (1790-1940).

"This Element explores a different set of imaginative techniques to address the fundamental challenge of understanding magic in the past: creative practices, including poetry, drama, and other forms of creative writing. The Element draws on the collaborative project 'Creative Histories of Witchcraft: France, 1790-1940', which brought together a poet (Anna Kisby Compton), a playwright (Poppy Corbett) and a historian (Will Pooley) to explore cases of witchcraft from across this long period. In what follows, we explain our project and how we did it, providing hands-on exercises for other researchers, creative practitioners, and teachers to try out for themselves"--