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.

About the Author

Tomas Macsotay is Research Lecturer in Art History at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

Cornelis van der Haven is Senior Lecturer in Dutch Literature at Ghent University

Karel Vanhaesebrouck is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Reviews

'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

'[...] the collection brims with archival discoveries, and scholars interested in the cultural history of pain, pain management, affect, performance, art and aesthetics will find The Hurt(ful) Body a timely addition to the bibliography of the period.'
The British Journal for the History of Science

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Book Information
ISBN 9781526143587
Author Tomas Macsotay
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 463g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 17mm