A Cultural History Of The Senses In The Middle Ages

Author : Richard G. Newhauser
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474233139
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Cultural History of the Senses in the Middle Ages written by Richard G. Newhauser and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the senses is indispensable for comprehending the Middle Ages because both a theoretical and a practical involvement with the senses played a central role in the development of ideology and cultural practice in this period. For the long medieval millennium, the senses were not limited to the five we think of: speech, for example, was categorized among the senses of the mouth. And sight and hearing were not always the dominant senses: for the medical profession, taste was more decisive. Nor were the senses only passive receptors: they were understood to play an active role in the process of perception and were also a vital element in the formation of each individual's moral identity. From the development of specifically urban or commercial sensations to the sensory regimes of holiness, from the senses as indicators of social status revealed in food to the Scholastic analysis of perception, this volume demonstrates the importance of sensory experience and its manifold interpretations in the Middle Ages. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Middle Ages presents essays on the following topics: the social life of the senses; urban sensations; the senses in the marketplace; the senses in religion; the senses in philosophy and science; medicine and the senses; the senses in literature; art and the senses; and sensory media.

Author : Constance Classen
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252094409
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Deepest Sense written by Constance Classen and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the softest caress to the harshest blow, touch lies at the heart of our experience of the world. Now, for the first time, this deepest of senses is the subject of an extensive historical exploration. The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch fleshes out our understanding of the past with explorations of lived experiences of embodiment from the middle ages to modernity. This intimate and sensuous approach to history makes it possible to foreground the tactile foundations of Western culture--the ways in which feelings shaped society. Constance Classen explores a variety of tactile realms including the feel of the medieval city; the tactile appeal of relics; the social histories of pain, pleasure, and affection; the bonds of touch between humans and animals; the strenuous excitement of sports such as wrestling and jousting; and the sensuous attractions of consumer culture. She delves into a range of vital issues, from the uses--and prohibitions--of touch in social interaction to the disciplining of the body by the modern state, from the changing feel of the urban landscape to the technologization of touch in modernity. Through poignant descriptions of the healing power of a medieval king's hand or the grueling conditions of a nineteenth-century prison, we find that history, far from being a dry and lifeless subject, touches us to the quick.

Author : Constance Classen
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857853430
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Empire written by Constance Classen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With six volumes covering 2,500 years, this is the definitive overview of the senses through history. From antiquity to the present day, this major reference work covers themes such as religion, philosophy, science, medicine, literature, art and media.

Author : Jerry Toner
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474232981
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Cultural History of the Senses in Antiquity written by Jerry Toner and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-23 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient world used the senses to express an enormous range of cultural meanings. Indeed the senses were functionally significant in all aspects of ancient life, often in ways that were complex and interconnected. Antiquity was also a period where the senses were experienced vividly: cities stank, statues were brightly painted and literature made full use of sensory imagery to create its effects. In a steeply hierarchical world, with vast differences between the landed wealthy, the poor and the slaves, the senses played a key role in establishing and maintaining boundaries between social groups; but the use of the senses in the ancient world was not static. New religions, such as Christianity, developed their own way of using the senses, acquiring unique forms of sensory-related symbolism in processes which were slow and often contested. The aim of this volume is to provide an overview of these structures and developments and to show how their study can yield a more nuanced understanding of the ancient world. A Cultural History of the Senses in Antiquity presents essays on the following topics: the social life of the senses; urban sensations; the senses in the marketplace; the senses in religion; the senses in philosophy and science; medicine and the senses; the senses in literature; art and the senses; and sensory media.

Author : Herman Roodenburg
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474233198
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Cultural History of the Senses in the Renaissance written by Herman Roodenburg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We know the Renaissance as a key period in the history of Europe. It saw the development of court and urban cultures, witnessed the first global voyages of discovery and gave rise to the Reformation and Counter Reformation. It also started with the 'invention' of oil painting, linear perspective and moveable type, all visual technologies. Does that mean, as has been suggested, that the Renaissance stands for the 'ascendancy of the eye'? If so, then what happened to the sensory extremes which the famous Dutch historian Johan Huizinga still perceived in the 15th century? Did they simply disappear? Or is there another history to be told, a history of a surprising continuity, not only of the sense of hearing but also of the 'lower' senses – those of taste, smell and touch? And was the Renaissance not first and foremost a time of deep sensory anxiety? This volume, assembling nine outstanding specialists, seeks to answer these questions while offering a lively and 'sensational' portrait of the period. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Renaissance presents essays on the following topics: the social life of the senses; urban sensations; the senses in the marketplace; the senses in religion; the senses in philosophy and science; medicine and the senses; the senses in literature; art and the senses; and sensory media.

Author : Constance Classen
Publisher : Bloomsbury USA Academic
ISBN 13 : 9780857853387
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Cultural History of the Senses written by Constance Classen and published by Bloomsbury USA Academic. This book was released on 2014 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did the past sound like, taste like, smell like? How did it look and feel? How did people make sense of the world through their senses? These are questions which are increasingly capturing the interest of historians.A Cultural History of the Senses delves into the sensory foundations of Western civilization, taking a comprehensive period-by-period approach, which provides a broad understanding of the life of the senses from antiquity to the modern day. The volumes treat such topics as the sensory markers of gender and class, the aesthetic dimensions of material culture, religious sensibilities, the medical uses of the senses and their representation in art and literature. These investigations bring out the sensations and values which defined experience in a particular era and shaped the world view of the time. With contributions from such prominent scholars as Peter Burke, Alain Corbin, Anthony Wallace-Hadrill and Chris Woolgar,A Cultural History of the Senses sets the stage for a vital new way of understanding the past. A Cultural History of the Senses presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. This set of six volumes explores the cultural life of the senses in the West over a span of 2500 years: 1. A Cultural History of the Senses in Antiquity, 500 BCE-500 CE 2. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Middle Ages, 500-1450 3. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Renaissance, 1450-1650 4. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Enlightenment, 1650-1800 5. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Empire, 1800-1920 6. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age, 1920-2000 Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: The Social Life of the Senses; Urban Sensations; The Senses in the Marketplace; The Senses in Religion; The Senses in Philosophy and Science; Medicine and the Senses; The Senses in Literature; Art and the Senses; and Sensory Media. This structure means that readers can either have a broad overview of a period or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume. Superbly illustrated, the full six volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on the senses in history.

Author : Robin Macdonald
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131705718X
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sensing the Sacred in Medieval and Early Modern Culture written by Robin Macdonald and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-20 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume traces transformations in attitudes toward, ideas about, and experiences of religion and the senses in the medieval and early modern period. Broad in temporal and geographical scope, it challenges traditional notions of periodisation, highlighting continuities as well as change. Rather than focusing on individual senses, the volume’s organisation emphasises the multisensoriality and embodied nature of religious practices and experiences, refusing easy distinctions between asceticism and excess. The senses were not passive, but rather active and reactive, res-ponding to and initiating change. As the contributions in this collection demonstrate, in the pre-modern era, sensing the sacred was a complex, vexed, and constantly evolving process, shaped by individuals, environment, and religious change. The volume will be essential reading not only for scholars of religion and the senses, but for anyone interested in histories of medieval and early modern bodies, material culture, affects, and affect theory.

Author : Stephen G. Nichols
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801887369
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking the Medieval Senses written by Stephen G. Nichols and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organised within historical, thematic, and contextual frameworks, this collection of essays examines the psychological, rhetorical, and philological complexities of sensory perception from the classical period to the late Midddle Ages.

Author : David Howes
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474233163
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age written by David Howes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-23 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 20th century, many aspects of life became 'a matter of perception' in the wake of the multiplication of media, stylistic experimentation, and the rise of multiculturalism. Life sped up as a result of new modes of transportation – automobiles and airplanes – and communication – telephones and personal computers – which emphasized the rapid movement of people and ideas. The proliferation of synthetic products and simulated experiences, from artificial flavors to video games, in turn, created heady virtual worlds of sensation. This progressive mediation and acceleration of sensation, along with the sensory and environmental pollution it often spawned, also sparked various countertrends, such as the 'back to nature' movement, the craft movement, slow food and alternative medicine. This volume shows how attending to the sensory dynamics of the modern age yields many fresh insights into the intertwined processes which gave the 20th century its particular feel of technological prowess and gaudy artificiality. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age presents essays on the following topics: the social life of the senses; urban sensations; the senses in the marketplace; the senses in religion; the senses in philosophy and science; medicine and the senses; the senses in literature; art and the senses; and sensory media.

Author : Annette Kern-Stähler
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004315497
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern England written by Annette Kern-Stähler and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-05-02 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays collected in The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern England examine the interrelationships between sense perception and secular and Christian cultures in England from the medieval into the early modern periods. They address canonical texts and writers in the fields of poetry, drama, homiletics, martyrology and early scientific writing, and they espouse methods associated with the fields of corpus linguistics, disability studies, translation studies, art history and archaeology, as well as approaches derived from traditional literary studies. Together, these papers constitute a major contribution to the growing field of sensorial research that will be of interest to historians of perception and cognition as well as to historians with more generalist interests in medieval and early modern England. Contributors include: Dieter Bitterli, Beatrix Busse, Rory Critten, Javier Díaz-Vera, Tobias Gabel, Jens Martin Gurr, Katherine Hindley, Farah Karim-Cooper, Annette Kern-Stähler, Richard Newhauser, Sean Otto, Virginia Richter, Elizabeth Robertson, and Kathrin Scheuchzer