This dissertation explores the ways in which affective responses to disabled bodies are represented and how this invites us to read these bodies aesthetically. I argue that this affective impact... Show moreThis dissertation explores the ways in which affective responses to disabled bodies are represented and how this invites us to read these bodies aesthetically. I argue that this affective impact can be understood as an affordance, a term I use to describe how the appearance of and interaction with disabled bodies produces affective responses such as fear, wonder, or disgust. I study the relationship between representation and affective reactions through literature and other art forms. Through close readings of literary texts and works of art, this dissertation offers an alternative to so-called model thinking—an approach that emphasizes categorization. Instead, I propose a reading that focuses on how bodily capacities are culturally and socially translated into (dis)abilities. Unlike taxonomic approaches that categorize and generalize, this method allows moving from the particular to the private. Works of art, although prone to generalization, emphasize their unicity and resist categorization. By analyzing how different art forms represent disabled bodies, the dissertation brings a new dimension to understanding our emotional responses and the aesthetic appreciation of bodily diversity. Show less
Through a correspondence between two scholars, this paper explores and critiques various ways in which scholars working in ethnography and cultural analysis frame and construct their methodology... Show moreThrough a correspondence between two scholars, this paper explores and critiques various ways in which scholars working in ethnography and cultural analysis frame and construct their methodology and object of study. Through the close reading of theoretical accounts of methodology in ethnography and cultural analysis, we examine how these accounts construct the relationship between the scholar and her object of study. We read these scholarly practices as protocols, referring to the ways in which accounts of methodology may be understood as rules/guidelines by which scholars in these fields conduct research. Protocol etymologically refers to protos (first) and kolla (glue). Through the figure of the protocol, we delineate how scholars in ethnography and cultural analysis themselves become implicated in giving accounts of their research methodologies. Show less
Denis Villeneuve’s film Blade Runner 2049 can be read as a postmodern detective story that explores the indeterminacy of whether its protagonist, K, is human or replicant. I argue that it is... Show moreDenis Villeneuve’s film Blade Runner 2049 can be read as a postmodern detective story that explores the indeterminacy of whether its protagonist, K, is human or replicant. I argue that it is through the search for clarity between these two ontological categories that the film concurrently investigates how the aesthetic and ethical category of the humane becomes, or can become, separate and distinct from the ontological category of the human. Through this separation, I argue that the humane is characterized by the desire to establish and build connections of emotional and affective intimacy regardless of whether a sub- ject is, or can be, ontologically characterized as human. Furthermore, through my reading of the film’s engagement with artificial memory, I argue that this allows us to reconsider the relationship between the notions of authenticity and intimacy, wherein the latter is not necessarily founded upon the former, but rather rests on the embodied capacity to feel and be affected. The construction of the humane in Blade Runner 2049 consequently develops as a posthumanist critique of a humanist cultural imagination in which the humane necessarily would be the exclusive domain of the human. Show less
In this paper, I explore how, in the final scenes of the novel Jane Eyre, disability is a vehicle for the involved characters to be able to designate emotional states to themselves and the other... Show moreIn this paper, I explore how, in the final scenes of the novel Jane Eyre, disability is a vehicle for the involved characters to be able to designate emotional states to themselves and the other through performative emotional language usage, called ‘emotives’. Through examining this use, I argue that the exchange of emotives cannot fully alleviate the different emotional states designated through them, but rather allow for a prosthetic relation of co-dependency to form between the novel’s two main characters. Subsequently, I argue that the exchange of emotives and the use of language as prosthesis produces legible gaps in and between various performative speech-acts, which through this legibility may generate traceable patterns of affect. Show less
The articles included in the present issue of the Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference, titled Animals (Un)tamed. Human–Animal Encounters in Science, Art, and Literature, are the result of the... Show moreThe articles included in the present issue of the Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference, titled Animals (Un)tamed. Human–Animal Encounters in Science, Art, and Literature, are the result of the diverse and interdisciplinary research on our multifaceted relationship with animals which is currently taking place. The fifth biennial LUCAS Graduate Conference, held in April 2019, shared this same theme. This conference on “Animals: Theory, Practice, and Representation” gave PhD and Master students the opportunity to present, exchange and discuss their research relating to animal studies with participants from diverse backgrounds. The resulting exchange focused on a re-examination of the relationship between humans and animals, and the definitions involved. Many of the articles in the present issue are result of the lively debate which took place during this conference. The contributions to this issue of JLGC reflect the wide variety of approaches in animal studies. Show less
Hiskes, A.R.; Dikken, J.; Renden, P.G.; Heemskerk, W. 2020
Vierdejaars studenten hbo-v van De Haagse Hogeschool hebben bij het HagaZiekenhuis in Den Haag onderzoek gedaan naar de betekenis van kwaliteit van zorg voor zowel patiënten als verpleegkundigen.... Show moreVierdejaars studenten hbo-v van De Haagse Hogeschool hebben bij het HagaZiekenhuis in Den Haag onderzoek gedaan naar de betekenis van kwaliteit van zorg voor zowel patiënten als verpleegkundigen. In plaats van werken met enquêtes of gestructureerde vragenlijsten gingen de studenten aan de slag met het zogeheten design thinking. Door design thinking als interviewtechniek te trainen bij studenten worden ze vaardig in het gevoelig leren doorvragen naar de diepere beleving en drijfveren omtrent kwaliteit van zorg bij patiënten en verpleegkundigen. Dit artikel beschrijft design thinking als onderzoeksmethode en hoe studenten verpleegkunde hier gebruik van kunnen maken. Daarnaast beschrijven wij de ervaringen van zowel de docenten, de studenten, als van zorgprofessionals in het ziekenhuis. Show less
In this paper, I propose an affective-formalist reading of what I call the affective affordances of disability; the way in which the representation of disability is able to move us. Through a... Show moreIn this paper, I propose an affective-formalist reading of what I call the affective affordances of disability; the way in which the representation of disability is able to move us. Through a comparative reading of two artworks, Michelangelo's David and Berlinde de Bruyckere's Into One-another III, to P.P.P., this paper explores the relationship between how reading for form in the mimetic representation of disability informs how we are affected by it. Concurrently, it explores how affect, conceived as a visceral force that moves through and impresses on bodies, can be generated through the way in which disabled bodies are represented in art. Show less
