History as embodied encounter: Queer pleasures and temporal drag in Benjamin Christensen's Witchcraft Through the Ages.

This article analyzes Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 film *Witchcraft Through the Ages* (*Häxan*) through a queer studies lens, employing Elizabeth Freeman’s concept of erotohistoriography from *Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories* (2010) to explore the film’s temporal dissidence and embodied pleasures. It argues that the film enacts a form of temporal drag by queering historical narratives and challenging linear, progress-oriented historiography, particularly through its focus on the female body, witchcraft, and hysteria as sites where past and present intermingle. Christensen’s multifaceted role as director, actor, and historian, combined with the film’s blending of spectacle, documentary impulses, and erotic imagery, positions *Witchcraft Through the Ages* as a feminist-adjacent, erotohistoriographic text that unsettles normative temporalities and offers alternative queer modes of engaging with history. The article situates the film within Nordic auteur cinema and broader discussions of gender, temporality, and historiography, highlighting its complex interplay of pain, pleasure, and historical consciousness.