{"title":"丑书情怀:中世纪晚期女性写作中的物质性与负面影响","authors":"S. Downes, S. Trigg","doi":"10.1163/2208522x-02010184","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nDrawing on the work of Sianne Ngai in Ugly Feelings (2005), in this essay we focus on two examples from early fifteenth-century medieval literature that represent medieval books as ‘ugly’ either because they arouse negative feelings of aversion or disgust or because they are considered in some way aesthetically lacking or inadequate. Christine de Pizan’s Livre de la cité des dames and Margery Kempe’s Book of Margery Kempe present women’s involvement with troubling or difficult books. The ‘ugly book feelings’ which both narrators encounter challenge not only their authority as writers, but their very sense of self. Such feelings, however, are transitory when placed in narrative context: in the two examples we discuss, a single material text serves as the catalyst for a moment of emotional transformation which may be spiritual and/or intellectual. Attending to literary representations of ugly book feelings, we argue, complements existing scholarship on late medieval women’s relationship to material textual culture by placing such feelings at the centre of a broad emotional spectrum.","PeriodicalId":29950,"journal":{"name":"Emotions-History Culture Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Ugly Book Feelings: Materiality and Negative Affect in Late Medieval Women’s Writing\",\"authors\":\"S. Downes, S. Trigg\",\"doi\":\"10.1163/2208522x-02010184\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"\\nDrawing on the work of Sianne Ngai in Ugly Feelings (2005), in this essay we focus on two examples from early fifteenth-century medieval literature that represent medieval books as ‘ugly’ either because they arouse negative feelings of aversion or disgust or because they are considered in some way aesthetically lacking or inadequate. Christine de Pizan’s Livre de la cité des dames and Margery Kempe’s Book of Margery Kempe present women’s involvement with troubling or difficult books. The ‘ugly book feelings’ which both narrators encounter challenge not only their authority as writers, but their very sense of self. Such feelings, however, are transitory when placed in narrative context: in the two examples we discuss, a single material text serves as the catalyst for a moment of emotional transformation which may be spiritual and/or intellectual. Attending to literary representations of ugly book feelings, we argue, complements existing scholarship on late medieval women’s relationship to material textual culture by placing such feelings at the centre of a broad emotional spectrum.\",\"PeriodicalId\":29950,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Emotions-History Culture Society\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-06-23\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Emotions-History Culture Society\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1163/2208522x-02010184\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Emotions-History Culture Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2208522x-02010184","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Ugly Book Feelings: Materiality and Negative Affect in Late Medieval Women’s Writing
Drawing on the work of Sianne Ngai in Ugly Feelings (2005), in this essay we focus on two examples from early fifteenth-century medieval literature that represent medieval books as ‘ugly’ either because they arouse negative feelings of aversion or disgust or because they are considered in some way aesthetically lacking or inadequate. Christine de Pizan’s Livre de la cité des dames and Margery Kempe’s Book of Margery Kempe present women’s involvement with troubling or difficult books. The ‘ugly book feelings’ which both narrators encounter challenge not only their authority as writers, but their very sense of self. Such feelings, however, are transitory when placed in narrative context: in the two examples we discuss, a single material text serves as the catalyst for a moment of emotional transformation which may be spiritual and/or intellectual. Attending to literary representations of ugly book feelings, we argue, complements existing scholarship on late medieval women’s relationship to material textual culture by placing such feelings at the centre of a broad emotional spectrum.