Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Jenn Cole moves fluidly between English and French and shows a mastery of sources in the study of hysteria and early psychoanalysis. Precisely by underlining the ways in which these women eluded, exceeded, and resisted the forms of representation and performance, she finds a space for their agency that evades and critiques even the reader’s scrutiny.” Roberta Barker, author of Early Modern Tragedy, Gender and Performance, 1984–2000: The Destined Livery
“Hysteria in Performance addresses the relationship between hysteria and photography, painting, dramaturgy, performance, dance, textuality, and verbal expression. Through these topics, Cole provides a reflection on the dynamics of looking, examining, and seeing in a ‘theatre of masculine desire’ that renders the individual hysterical woman invisible, yet the object of a most meticulous gaze. Captivating and beautifully written.” Claudie Massicotte, author of Trance Speakers: Femininity and Authorship in Spiritual Séances, 1850–1930
“Hysteria in Performance is a master class on how to decolonize research and archives that have been exhausted by scholars and writers throughout the ages. Decolonizing archives means shifting the narrative, because, [in] Cole's words, “there is no feminist or conciliatory future without decolonization”” H-Sci-Med-Tech
