The Book of Hours and the Body: Somaesthetics, Posthumanism, and the Uncanny (Routledge Research in Art History)

This book explores our corporeal connections to the past by considering what three theoretical approaches - somaesthetics, posthumanism, and the uncanny - may reveal about both premodern and postmodern terms of embodiment. It takes as its point of departure a selection of fifteenth-century northern European Books of Hours - evocative objects designed at once to inscribe social status, to strengthen religious commitment, to entertain, to stimulate emotions, and to encourage discomfiting self-scrutiny. Studying their kaleidoscopically strange, moving, humorous, disturbing, and imaginative pages not only enables a window into relationships among bodies, images, and things in the past but also in our own internet era, where surprisingly popular memes drawn from such manuscripts constitute a part of our own visual culture. In negotiating theoretical, post-theoretical, and historical concerns, this book aims to contribute to an emerging and much-needed intersectional social history of art. It will be of interest to scholars working in art history, medieval studies, Renaissance/early modern studies, gender studies, the history of the book, posthumanism, aesthetics, and the body. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Figures and Photo Credits Abbreviations Notes on the Text Acknowledgments 1. The Book of Hours and the Body: Introduction 2. Somaesthetics: The Book of Hours as Elite Self-Fashioning Introduction The Theory The Manuscript and Its Place in Art History Somaesthetic Self-Fashioning Portraits and Identity Sexuality and Gender Embodying Penitence Somaesthetic Art, Politics, and Society The Politics of Penance Strange Mergings and Social Class Somaesthetic Othering Conclusion 3. Posthumanism: Technologizing the Book of Hours Introduction The Theory The Manuscript and Its Place in Art History The Posthumanist Margin The Illusion of the Center The Technological Unconscious Gender in the Margins Posthumanist Art, Politics, and Society Gender and Succession The Posthumanist Subject in Society Agents and Objects Conclusion 4. The Uncanny: Immaterial Matters in Books of Hours Introduction The Theory The Manuscripts and Their Place in Art History Uncanny (Im)materiality Anthropomorphic Trinities Materials Lives of the Virgin and Christ Cycles Uncanny Art, Politics, and Society Bibliophilic Loyalty and Partisan Luminescence Uncanny Regalia Posthumous Possessions Conclusion Index of Secondary Authors General Index This book explores our corporeal connections to the past by considering what three theoretical approaches--somaesthetics, posthumanism, and the uncanny--may reveal about both premodern and postmodern terms of embodiment. It takes as its point of departure a selection of fifteenth-century northern European Books of Hours--evocative objects designed at once to to inscribe social status, to strengthen religious commitment, to entertain, to stimulate emotions, and to encourage discomfiting self-scrutiny. Studying their kaleidoscopically strange, moving, humorous, disturbing, imaginative pages not only enables a window into relationships among bodies, images, and things in the past, but also in our own internet era, where surprisingly popular memes drawn from such manuscripts constitute a part of our own visual culture. In negotiating theoretical, post-theoretical, and historical concerns, this book aims to contribute to an emerging and much-needed intersectional social history of art. It will be of interest to scholars working in art history, medieval studies, Renaissance/early modern studies, gender studies, the history of the book, posthumanism, aesthetics, and the body.