The 'dead who walk': Materiality, liminality and the supernatural world in Francois Richard's 'Of false revenants'

Abstract

In his brief discourse 'Of false revenants', published in 1657, Francois Richard argues that the bodies of the dead can and do 'walk' among the living. According to Richard's interpretation of the existence of these revenants, until the human corpse loses its fleshy materiality and is reduced to bare bones by the processes of decomposition, the body retains a potential for activity and thus is vulnerable to reanimation by a witch or demon seeking a means to plague the living. In framing this argument Richard draws on Christian theology, natural philosophy and folkloric tales of the wandering dead to propose that the existence of these reanimated corpses represents proof of the supernatural forces at work in this world and beyond the grave.