Résumés
Abstract
This article examines the great age of corporal punishments in German-speaking lands to draw attention to the historical intersections between senses, disability, and social death. Between approximately 1400 and 1550, civic and territorial magistrates administered a wide variety of corporal punishments on subjects, including mutilating punishments such as blinding. This article sketches the history of judicial blinding through a close reading of the archival record from the free imperial city of Frankfurt am Main and contextualizes this evidence by reference to the practice in other sites across German-speaking lands. It explains the origins of judicial blinding, analyzes major patterns in how the punishment was administered, and interprets the age of judicial blinding as a long experiment in social death. To make this final interpretive argument, this article shows how those who suffered the punishment embodied the three major criteria associated with social death in modern theoretical discussions of the concept: loss of bodily integrity, loss of social identity, and loss of social networks. Throughout, analysis and interpretation bring together insights from early modern sensory history and disability history.
Keywords:
- Blindness,
- Disability,
- Corporal Punishment,
- Vision,
- Visual Culture,
- Germany,
- Frankfurt am Main,
- Social Death
Résumé
Le présent article examine la grande époque des châtiments corporels dans les pays germanophones en vue d’attirer l’attention sur les liens historiques entre les sens, le handicap et la mort sociale. Entre environ 1400 et 1550, les magistrats civiques et territoriaux ont administré une grande variété de châtiments corporels à leurs sujets, y compris des mutilations comme l’aveuglement. Cet article esquisse l’histoire de l’aveuglement judiciaire à travers une lecture attentive des archives de la ville impériale libre de Francfort-sur-le-Main, en contextualisant ces documents à la lumière des usages en vigueur dans différentes régions germanophones. Il explique les origines de l’aveuglement judiciaire, analyse les principales manières d’administrer le châtiment et interprète l’époque de l’aveuglement judiciaire comme une longue expérience sur la mort sociale. Pour étayer ce dernier argument interprétatif, l’article montre en quoi les condamnés réunissaient les trois principaux critères associés à la mort sociale, selon les discours théoriques modernes sur cette notion : la perte de l’intégrité corporelle, la perte de l’identité sociale et la perte des réseaux sociaux. Au fil de l’article, l’analyse et l’interprétation font appel à l’histoire sensorielle des premiers temps modernes et à l’histoire du handicap.
Mots-clés :
- Cécité,
- Handicap,
- Châtiment corporel,
- Vue,
- Culture visuelle,
- Allemagne,
- Francfort-sur-le-Main,
- Mort sociale
Parties annexes
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