Performing bodies in pain Medieval and post-modern martyrs, mystics, and artists /
This text analyzes the cultural work of spectacular suffering in contemporary discourse and late-medieval France, reading recent dramatizations of torture and performances of self-mutilating conceptual art against late-medieval saint plays.
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Literature type: | Electronic Software eBook |
Language: | English |
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Palgrave studies in theatre and performance history
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Online Access: |
http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9780230111486 |
Summary: |
This text analyzes the cultural work of spectacular suffering in contemporary discourse and late-medieval France, reading recent dramatizations of torture and performances of self-mutilating conceptual art against late-medieval saint plays. "Pain is both one of the most fundamental human experiences and also one of the most complex and the extensive interest today in the performing body has concentrated new attention on this basic experience. Carlson examines key manifestations, private and public, of pain, its performance, its effect upon those who witness it, and its utilization in both medieval and modern contexts. The result is a fascinating comparison of this universal phenomenon in pre-modern and post-modern culture which opens provocative new perspectives in the understanding of both." - Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Professor of Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center "In this dazzling juxtaposition of performed pain in late medieval France and our own late/post modern world, Carlson makes immediate for the reader the sensations and responses of spectatorship. But she also reflects, deeply and wisely, on the many uses and functions of pain in these parallel but far from identical worlds. Drawn along by Carlson's compelling sense of urgency and presence, the reader encounters with her the pain of others, whether simulated or real, as a medium through which we experience a culture's most significant identities. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from witness to neuroscience, from saints' plays to performance art, this book makes major contribution to our thinking (and feeling) about pain." - Pamela Sheingorn, City University of New York. |
Item Description: |
Electronic book text. Epublication based on: 9780230103863. |
Carrier Form: | 240 p. |
ISBN: |
9780230103863 9780230111486 : 0230111483 : |
CLC: | F719.5 |
Contents: | Introduction * Feeling Torture * Imagining Death * Enduring Ecstasy * Whipping up Community * Containing Chaos * Conclusion. |