By Kaedy Puckett Some see pain as memory and some see memory as pain Poetry, Art, and Literature, aestheticize the slain. Gruesome torment, captured through portraiture of inflicted sin Where seeing eyes are captivated by bittersweet disdain The moon, the stars, the cosmos hold no candle to the image Of torn and twisted flesh; of cruelty utterly inhumane. Does vivid horror unite the good, or does it please the bad?…
By Clare Kemmerer, Dannie Griggs, Maya Ordonez, and Kaedy Puckett Part I How did medieval viewers experience martyr stories? Were they fascinated by the lurid details of martyrdom–the grievous bodily harm, the horrifying demons, the beautiful virgins? Did they become afraid or inspired, measuring themselves up to an unmeetable example of Christian virtue? Were they spiritually transported, or were they something nearer to a modern superhero story, a fanciful legend…
By Clare Kemmerer, Dannie Briggs, Kaedy Puckett, and Maya Ordonez Part I: “History is what hurts” remarked Fredric Jameson; Jeffrey Hamburger, responding, asks “what could be more natural than pain?”. Pain, in the Middle Ages, was gratuitously enacted and engaged upon; physical anguish was invoked in everything from grotesque legal punishments to depictions of Hell, from monastic pious practices to gruesome artworks. Artworks from the Middle Ages present pain in…
Tapestry of mind – Her intricate labored cloth Hand-made, tattered now Consolation prize? To find pleasure in forced pain; Poetic satin A heavy garment – Philosophy’s divided For want or for need? Words for what have none Poetry, Philosophy Together always Like golden pothos Propagated, learns to grow So must intellect. Image Source
