Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings

Ugly Feelings is a study of negative emotions in the modern era, which Sianne Ngai characterizes as a state of affective equivocation trapped within an inability to exert ones agency, a claim which echoes Benjamin’s statement that fascism gives tools for expression but not for political change. She is interested in “affective gaps and illegibilities”,… Continue reading Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings

William of Auvergne, The Immortality of the Soul

Early in The Immortality of the Soul, William of Auvergne moves from a theological explanation of why the soul must exist to a practical one. The soul and the body are mutually affective, he argues; they not only depend on one another, but have an inverse relationship in terms of their health. While one might… Continue reading William of Auvergne, The Immortality of the Soul

Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Right to Look

On the first page of The Right to Look, Nicholas Mirzoeff claims that “the right to look is the right to the real”– in other words, looking and being looked at in such a way that the autonomy of both parties is emphasized, and their existence is mutually acknowledged. In explicit dialogue with Frederic Jameson’s… Continue reading Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Right to Look

Ethan Knapp, The Bureaucratic Muse

Knapp argues that bureaucratic identity and scribal labor in the fifteenth century contributed to the literature and overall vernacular landscape. He uses Thomas Hoccleve’s writing, particularly the Series and the Regiment of Princes, to make this argument. Hoccleve is not merely a “genetic” descendent of Chaucer, as he has been treated in the past, but… Continue reading Ethan Knapp, The Bureaucratic Muse

Claire Trenery, Madness, Medicine and Miracle in 12th Century England

Claire Trenery positions this work as an answer to overly reductive dialogues about medieval madness. She is interested in 12th century miracle stories about individuals being cured of their madness, of which she focuses on the most physical, outwardly expressed versions (insania and amens). She explores how madness was diagnosed in the 12th century and… Continue reading Claire Trenery, Madness, Medicine and Miracle in 12th Century England

Alison Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip

In her book Feminist, Queer, Crip, Alison Kafer looks to develop a way of talking about disability that recognizes its status as a political identity, and that also imagines a future for disabled people. Attitudes towards disability link the present with the future: “one’s assumptions about the experience of disability create one’s conception of a… Continue reading Alison Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip

Esther Cohen, Pain in Late Medieval Culture

Cohen argues that medieval pain is an individual phenomenon but also something that’s communal and shared. People either accepted pain as a holy experience, deliberately sought out pain, or ran from pain. Medical discourses, meanwhile, saw pain as an unfortunate but unavoidable fact of life. Although there were attempts at eradicating pain, generally it was… Continue reading Esther Cohen, Pain in Late Medieval Culture