The Sense of Suffering: Constructions of Physical Pain in Early Modern Culture

Review "This superb collection is well researched, elegantly edited, and richly illustrated." Simon Fortin, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter 2009). "a fascinating study" ... "groundbreaking" ... "The Sense of Suffering is perhaps the most ambitious of all existing studies of pain." Hannah Newton, University of Exeter. In: Medical History, Vol. 54, No. 2 (April 2010), pp. 279-280. "The Sense of Suffering provides a much-needed examination of pain and its many meanings in early modern Europe." Olivia Weisser, Princeton University. In: Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 85 (2011), pp. 138-139. Product Description The early modern period is a particularly relevant and fascinating chapter in the history of pain. This volume investigates early modern constructions of physical pain from a variety of disciplines, including religious, legal and medical history, literary criticism, philosophy, and art history. The contributors examine how early modern culture interpreted physical pain, as it presented itself for instance during illness, but also analyse the ways in which early moderns employed the idea of physical suffering as a powerful rhetorical tool in debates over other issues, such as the nature of ritual, notions of masculinity, selfhood and community, definitions of religious experience, and the nature of political power.The contributors include: Emese Balint, Maria Berbara, Joseph Campana, Andreas Dehmer, Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen, Karl A.E. Enenkel, Lia van Gemert, Frans Willem Korsten, Mary Ann Lund, Jenny Mayhew, Stephen Pender, Michael Schoenfeldt, Kristine Steenbergh, Anne Tilkorn, Jetze Touber, Anita Traninger, and Patrick Vandermeersch. From the Back Cover The early modern period is a particularly relevant and fascinating chapter in the history of pain. This volume investigates early modern constructions of physical pain from a variety of disciplines, including religious, legal and medical history, literary criticism, philosophy, and art history. The contributors examine how early modern culture interpreted physical pain, as it presented itself for instance during illness, but also analyse the ways in which early moderns employed the idea of physical suffering as a powerful rhetorical tool in debates over other issues, such as the nature of ritual, notions of masculinity, selfhood and community, definitions of religious experience, and the nature of political power. Contributors include: Emese BAlint, Maria Berbara, Joseph Campana, Andreas Dehmer, Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen, Karl A.E. Enenkel, Lia van Gemert, Frans Willem Korsten, Mary Ann Lund, Jenny Mayhew, Stephen Pender, Michael Schoenfeldt, Kristine Steenbergh, Anne Tilkorn, Jetze Touber, Anita Traninger, and Patrick Vandermeersch. About the Author Karl A.E. Enenkel is Professor of Neo-Latin Literature at Leiden University, director of the research group "The New Management of Knowledge in the Early Modern Period", funded by the Netherlands Organization for Academic Research (NWO), and member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He has published extensively on international Humanism, the reception of Classical Antiquity, the history of ideas, literary genres and emblem studies. Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen is lecturer in English literature and research fellow at the University of Leiden. He is the author of Devil Theatre: Demonic Possession and Exorcism in English Renaissance Drama, 1558-1642 (Cambridge: 2007). His current project, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Academic Research (NWO), investigates perceptions of physical pain in early modern England.