The Hurt(Ful) Body
Performing and Beholding Pain, 1600–1800
Tomas Macsotay editor Cornelis van der Haven editor Karel Vanhaesebrouck editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Manchester University Press
Published:19th Jul '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This book offers a cross-disciplinary approach to pain and suffering in the early modern period, based on research in the fields of literary studies, art history, theatre studies, cultural history and the study of emotions. The volume’s two-fold approach to the hurt body, defining ‘hurt’ from the perspectives of both victim and beholder - as well as their combined creation of a gaze - is unique. It establishes a double perspective about the riddle of ‘cruel’ viewing by tracking the shifting cultural meanings of victims’ bodies and confronting them with the values of audiences, religious and popular institutional settings and practices of punishment. It encompasses both the victim’s presence as an image or performed event of pain and the conundrum of the look – the transmitted ‘pain’ experienced by the watching audience.
'This edited volume is critical for anyone working on the representations and functions of the suffering body, its effects on the onlooker, and the ways in which the hurt(ful) body is inscribed and deployed in various political, judicial, and economic institutions of the early modern period. The diverse methodological approaches to the study of the body in pain illustrate the complexity of the topic, and the book will surely inspire scholars to continue their reflection on the roles and stakes of the harmed body and the body that harms.'
Michael Meere, Wesleyan University, Bulletin of the Comediantes volume 70.2
ISBN: 9781784995164
Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 19mm
Weight: 635g
328 pages