RADIOHEAD 'BURN THE WITCH' INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES

Question 1

Name 3 direct intertextual reference made in Burn The Witch?

Answer 1

1. Trumptonshire Trilogy
2. The Wickerman (1973)
3. Medieval witch trials and hunts

Question 2

Name 2 indirect intertextual references made in the video?

Answer 2

• Orwellian Dystopia & Surveillance Culture
• Folk Horror genre

Question 3

Trumptonshire Trilogy (direct intertexual refernece)

Answer 3

• Trumptonshire Triology: Children’s TV series which is stop motion animated, which depicted idyllic English villages
• Subversion- the innocent tone/ style is undercute by darker themes of human sacrifice rituals, mob rule.

Suggests that beneathe the surface of traditional British society lies a dark undercurrent of fear and control.

Question 4

The Wickerman (1973)- direct intertextual reference

Answer 4

• Wickerman (a british folk-horror film about a policeman investigating a remote village engaged in pagan rituals).
• The outsider is placed inside a giant wooden effiagy and seemigly burned alive (direct reference)

Question 5

Medieval Witch Trials and hunts

Answer 5

• Visually echoes medieval witch hunts/ executions turned into public spectecles with audiences / Links to modern witch trials such as McCarthyism.

Question 6

Folk Horror Genre- indirect intertextual reference

Answer 6

genre conventions- rural setting, isolation, and themes of superstition, folk religion, paganism, sacrifice and the dark aspects of nature.

Question 7

Biblical/religious allegory

Answer 7

Reference to the levitical scapegoat (blaming and banishing a symbolic figure as an attempt to purge societal sins)

Lyrics like “Stay in the shadows / cheer at the gallows” evoke a passive populace complicit in persecution—mirroring Biblical crowds cheering Jesus’s crucifixion or historical martyrdoms.