Devon Wallace | Loyola University Maryland (original) (raw)

Papers by Devon Wallace

production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paste... more production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paster explains that humoral bodies are animated by forces called "passions," which are "imbued with moral density and spiritual import" and act within the body "just as the forces of wind and waves act in the natural world" (Humoring the Body, 6). When Paster claims that early modern writers typically "understand the nature of passions as liquid," she is not suggesting that one should take this claim metaphorically (4). Instead, she asserts that the human body literally moves with these passions; "the emotions actually were liquid forces of nature" (4). Early modern writers answer questions about what these passions are, where they originate from, and to what extent they could be controlled with radically inconsistency. For example, in The Mysterie of the Holy Government of Our Affections (1620), Thomas Cooper recognizes that many of his contemporaries hold the belief that bodily humors drive the passions. However, he claims, "The Affections proceed from the Soule, and not the Bodie, not the Humours" (B15v-B16r). Unlike Burton, Cooper imagines a soul, which exists as the origin of affection, to be entirely independent of the body. For Cooper, passions are not physical products of the embodied humors. They are intangible elements which "give fuell to our desires, & bellowes there unto" (B16r). Passions figure forth the "desires of the mind, in the outward man" (Cooper B16r). Therefore, the source of human desire becomes a question of spirituality, not physicality. In her seminal volume, The Body Embarrassed (1993), and its successor, Humoring the Body (2004), Paster exhaustively demonstrates that, for an early modern, humoral physiology was not only a tool to describe human character, but was a ubiquitous, intensely corporeal, "livedin-the-body" reality. She argues that the relationship between the humors and their

production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paste... more production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paster explains that humoral bodies are animated by forces called "passions," which are "imbued with moral density and spiritual import" and act within the body "just as the forces of wind and waves act in the natural world" (Humoring the Body, 6). When Paster claims that early modern writers typically "understand the nature of passions as liquid," she is not suggesting that one should take this claim metaphorically (4). Instead, she asserts that the human body literally moves with these passions; "the emotions actually were liquid forces of nature" (4). Early modern writers answer questions about what these passions are, where they originate from, and to what extent they could be controlled with radically inconsistency. For example, in The Mysterie of the Holy Government of Our Affections (1620), Thomas Cooper recognizes that many of his contemporaries hold the belief that bodily humors drive the passions. However, he claims, "The Affections proceed from the Soule, and not the Bodie, not the Humours" (B15v-B16r). Unlike Burton, Cooper imagines a soul, which exists as the origin of affection, to be entirely independent of the body. For Cooper, passions are not physical products of the embodied humors. They are intangible elements which "give fuell to our desires, & bellowes there unto" (B16r). Passions figure forth the "desires of the mind, in the outward man" (Cooper B16r). Therefore, the source of human desire becomes a question of spirituality, not physicality. In her seminal volume, The Body Embarrassed (1993), and its successor, Humoring the Body (2004), Paster exhaustively demonstrates that, for an early modern, humoral physiology was not only a tool to describe human character, but was a ubiquitous, intensely corporeal, "livedin-the-body" reality. She argues that the relationship between the humors and their

Neuroscience and Galen: Body, selfhood, and the materiality of emotions on the early modern stage

production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paste... more production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paster explains that humoral bodies are animated by forces called "passions," which are "imbued with moral density and spiritual import" and act within the body "just as the forces of wind and waves act in the natural world" (Humoring the Body, 6). When Paster claims that early modern writers typically "understand the nature of passions as liquid," she is not suggesting that one should take this claim metaphorically (4). Instead, she asserts that the human body literally moves with these passions; "the emotions actually were liquid forces of nature" (4). Early modern writers answer questions about what these passions are, where they originate from, and to what extent they could be controlled with radically inconsistency. For example, in The Mysterie of the Holy Government of Our Affections (1620), Thomas Cooper recognizes that many of his contemporaries hold the belief that bodily humors drive the passions. However, he claims, "The Affections proceed from the Soule, and not the Bodie, not the Humours" (B15v-B16r). Unlike Burton, Cooper imagines a soul, which exists as the origin of affection, to be entirely independent of the body. For Cooper, passions are not physical products of the embodied humors. They are intangible elements which "give fuell to our desires, & bellowes there unto" (B16r). Passions figure forth the "desires of the mind, in the outward man" (Cooper B16r). Therefore, the source of human desire becomes a question of spirituality, not physicality. In her seminal volume, The Body Embarrassed (1993), and its successor, Humoring the Body (2004), Paster exhaustively demonstrates that, for an early modern, humoral physiology was not only a tool to describe human character, but was a ubiquitous, intensely corporeal, "livedin-the-body" reality. She argues that the relationship between the humors and their

production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paste... more production of the mental interior, of the individual's private experience" (195). Gail Kern Paster explains that humoral bodies are animated by forces called "passions," which are "imbued with moral density and spiritual import" and act within the body "just as the forces of wind and waves act in the natural world" (Humoring the Body, 6). When Paster claims that early modern writers typically "understand the nature of passions as liquid," she is not suggesting that one should take this claim metaphorically (4). Instead, she asserts that the human body literally moves with these passions; "the emotions actually were liquid forces of nature" (4). Early modern writers answer questions about what these passions are, where they originate from, and to what extent they could be controlled with radically inconsistency. For example, in The Mysterie of the Holy Government of Our Affections (1620), Thomas Cooper recognizes that many of his contemporaries hold the belief that bodily humors drive the passions. However, he claims, "The Affections proceed from the Soule, and not the Bodie, not the Humours" (B15v-B16r). Unlike Burton, Cooper imagines a soul, which exists as the origin of affection, to be entirely independent of the body. For Cooper, passions are not physical products of the embodied humors. They are intangible elements which "give fuell to our desires, & bellowes there unto" (B16r). Passions figure forth the "desires of the mind, in the outward man" (Cooper B16r). Therefore, the source of human desire becomes a question of spirituality, not physicality. In her seminal volume, The Body Embarrassed (1993), and its successor, Humoring the Body (2004), Paster exhaustively demonstrates that, for an early modern, humoral physiology was not only a tool to describe human character, but was a ubiquitous, intensely corporeal, "livedin-the-body" reality. She argues that the relationship between the humors and their

Neuroscience and Galen: Body, selfhood, and the materiality of emotions on the early modern stage