Beyond Sight, edited by Ryan D. Giles and Steven Wagschal, explores the ways in which Iberian writers crafted images of both Old and New Worlds using the non-visual senses (hearing, smell, taste, and touch).
The contributors argue that the uses of these senses are central to understanding Iberian authors and thinkers from the pre- and early modern periods. Medievalists delve into the poetic interiorizations of the sensorial plane to show how sacramental and purportedly miraculous sensory experiences were central to the effort of affirming faith and understanding indigenous peoples in the Americas. Renaissance and early modernist essays shed new light on experiences of pungent, bustling ports and city centres, and the exotic musical performances of empire. This insightful collection covers a wide array of approaches including literary and cultural history, philosophical aesthetics, affective and cognitive studies, and theories of embodiment. Beyond Sight expands the field of sensory studies to focus on the Iberian Peninsula and its colonies from historical, literary, and cultural perspectives.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Ryan D. Giles and Steven Wagschal
Part I. Sensing Religion
Chapter 1. The Breath of Lazarus in the Mocedades de Rodrigo
Ryan D. Giles
Chapter 2. Olfaction, Sin, and Grace in Berceo's Milagros
Víctor Rodríguez-Pereira
Part II. Cognition and the Senses
Chapter 3. Perception, Memory and Imagination in Don Qujxote
Julia Domínguez
Chapter 4. Taste, Cognition, and Redemption in Guzmán de Alfarache
Robert K. Fritz
Chapter 5. The Aesthetics of Disgust in Cervantes and Zayas
Steven Wagschal
Part III. Perception
Chapter 6. Sight, Sense, and Scents in the Cancionero de Palacio
E. Michael Gerli
Chapter 7. The Physical Senses in Early Modern Galenism Debates and Prescriptive Domestic Literature
Carolyn A. Nadeau
Chapter 8. Cervantes's Exemplary Sensorium
Charles Victor Ganelin
Part IV. Sensing Empire
Chapter 9. The Senses of Empire and the Scents of Babylon in the Libro de Alexandre
Emily Francomano
Chapter 10. Portuguese Coastal Realms and the Delight of the Senses
Josiah Blackmore
Chapter 11. Eucharistic Thought and Imperial Longing in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Portugal
Henry Berlin
Chapter 12. Festive Soundscapes in Potosí and Minas Gerais
Lisa Voigt
Part V. Sensing the Urban
Chapter 13. Celestial Visions and Demonic Touch: García's Inventions in La verdad sospechosa
Frederick A. de Armas
Chapter 14. Motherhood, Interrupted: Sensing Birth in Early Modern Spanish Fiction
Enrique García Santo-Tomás
About the Author :
Ryan D. Giles is an associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Steven Wagschal is a professor and chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Review :
"Beyond Sight is a highly readable book that appeals, quite literally, to all the senses, and which significantly expands our understanding of medieval and early modern culture."
- Cory A. Reed, University of Texas at Austin (Bulletin of Spanish Studies)
