“What Is a Witch?”: Tituba's Subjunctive Challenge

Examining the paucity of historical knowledge of Tituba, the only Black woman in the Salem Witch Trial archives from 1692–1693, this chapter proposes a decolonial method of subjunctive reading by examining Maryse Condé's novel, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. Focusing on moments of queer erotics and feminist speculation, and on moments of more-than-human worlding, the chapter argues that “witchcraft” is a concept that appears in colonial contact zones. “Recreating” Tituba to fit the needs of her decolonial and feminist imagination, Condé's novel repeatedly asks what a witch “is,” only to find Tituba shifting that indicative mood to the subjunctive, amplifying what could have been and what might yet be.