The Hurt(ful) Body : Performing and Beholding Pain, 1600–1800

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. It has a sustained focus on visual sources, textual material and documents about actual events rather than well-known thinkers or ‘masterpieces’ of art history, and a preference for cases and historical contexts over systematic theory-building. __The hurt(ful) body__ brings under discussion visual and performative representations of embodied pain, using an insistently dialectical approach that takes into account the perspective of the hurt body itself, the power and afflictions of its beholder and, finally, the routinising and redeeming of hurt within institutional contexts. The volume’s two-fold approach of the hurt body, defining ‘hurt’ both from the perspective of the victim and the 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 to 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 will be done through three rubrics: the early modern performing body, beholder or audience responses, and the operations of institutional power. Because of its interdisciplinary approach of the history of pain and the hurt(ful) body, the book will be of interest for Lecturers and students from different fields, like the history of ideas, the history of the body, urban history, theatre studies, literary studies, art history, emotion studies and performance studies 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 To 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. Spectacle And Martyrdom : Bloody Suffering, Performed Suffering And Recited Suffering In French Tragedy (late Sixteenth And Early Seventeenth Centuries) / Christian Biet -- The Massacre Of The Innocents : Infanticide And Solace In The Seventeenth-century Low Countries / Stijn Bussels And Bram Van Oostveldt -- To Travel To Suffer : Towards A Reverse Anthropology Of The Early Modern Colonial Body / Karel Vanhaesbrouck -- 'i Feel Your Pain' : Some Reflections On The (literary) Perception Of Pain / Jonathan Sawday -- Masochism And The Female Gaze / John Yamamoto-wilson -- Epicurean Tastes : Towards A French Eighteenth-century Criticm Of The Image Of Pain / Tomas Macsotay -- Wounding Realities And 'painful Excitements' : Real Sympathy, The Imitation Of Suffering And The Visual Arts After Burke's Sublime / Aris Sarafianos -- Forced Witnessing Of Pain And Horror In The Context Of Colonial And Religious Massacres : The Case Of Irish Rebellion, 1641-53 / Nicolás Kwiatkowski -- Theatrical Torture Versus Dramatic Cruelty : Subjection Through Representation Or Praxis / Frans-willem Korsten -- Palermo's Past Public Executions And Their Lingering / Maria Pia Di Bella -- The Economics Of Pain : Pain In Dutch Stock Trade Discourses And Practices, 1600-1750 / Inger Leemans. Edited By Tomas Macsotay, Cornelis Van Der Haven And Karel Vanhaesebrouck. Includes Bibliographical References. 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. Brings into mutual dialogue several existing strands of the study of pain and embodied violence. The volume’s two-fold approach, themed both on the hurt and hurt-inducing body, is unique. It encompasses both the victim’s presence as an image or performed event of pain and the transmitted burden or ‘pain’ experienced by the watching audience. -- . This text brings into mutual dialogue several existing strands of the study of pain and embodied violence. Its two-fold approach, themed both on the hurt and hurt-inducing body, is unique and encompasses both the victim's presence as an image or performed event of pain and the transmitted burden or 'pain' experienced by the watching audience