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
Category: Blog
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
Trigg and Prendergast, Affective Medievalism
Affective Medievalism is a kind of manifesto for medieval studies and medievalism studies. It begins with a paradox pointed out by Paul Strohm and others about medievalism: attempts to get at the “real” medieval will always fail. If this is true, and this book starts from the premise that it is, what is the point… Continue reading Trigg and Prendergast, Affective Medievalism
Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes
So long a nyght ne felte I nevere noon As was that same, to my jugement. Whoso that thoghty is, is wo begoon; The thoghtful wight is vessel of torment; Ther nis no greef to him equipollent. He graveth deepest of seeknesses alle: Ful wo is him that in swich thoght is falle. (ll.78-84) The… Continue reading Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes
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
Lennard J. Davis, Enforcing Normalcy
Lennard J. Davis’s work has been formative for the corpus of disability studies. His concept of the norm was one of the first keywords I came across when I began learning about the field, and it is a concept I have spent some time writing against for the past few years. In Enforcing Normalcy, Davis… Continue reading Lennard J. Davis, Enforcing Normalcy
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
