Work and Play During Covid-19

The global pandemic and resultant lockdowns are challenging our traditional assumptions about the times and spaces of labour and leisure - but how were these norms established and why have they had such an enduring appeal? In this paper, we take a long view to investigate the philosophical and historical roots of the binary distinction between work and play and outline ways in which these long-held ideas are being increasingly challenged. As lockdown measures are relaxed, we urgently need to develop more nuanced conceptions of the spatial and temporal conditions of work and leisure to ensure a more equitable and compassionate post-lockdown world.

Carlo Crivelli: a strategy for the Marche rebirth

Carlo Crivelli’s work is dispersed around the world, but significant examples remain in the Italian region of the Marche. This article analyses the benefit of a collaborative approach between Crivelli’s exhibitions in the Marche to propose strategies that would follow a place-based approach and increase the attractiveness of cities and villages where Crivelli’s artworks are displayed. The paper analyses two case studies presenting different approaches to the Crivelli’s art works: the Museum of St Francis displaying the Triptych of Montefiore dell’Aso, and the Church of St. Martin Bishop exhibiting the Polyptych of Monte San Martino in the original location.

The Observers Observed: 'Reflections on making a film, The Day War Broke Out, with the Mass Observation Archive' by three PhD researchers

Elizabeth Chappell, Simon King and Dominique Baron-Bonarjee made a film, The Day War Broke Out, in the summer of 2019 as part of a CHASE film making training course led by film-maker Karen Boswall at The University of Sussex. The film focuses on the way in which the Mass Observation (MO) Archive came about. The film brings to life the materiality of the archive through voice, music, hand-written letters, historical objects and setting as well as through an interview with one of Mass Observation’s curators, Kirsty Pattrick. But what can we understand from the stated intentions of MO’s founders for anonymous volunteer contributors to write diaries ‘so that their [the public’s] environment may be understood and thus constantly transformed.’? This article takes the view that the ‘single voice’, i.e. in this case the personal reflective narrative, can offer a ‘way in’ to understanding collective lived experience. Exploring the research questions through three case studies, it offers a dialogical approach to the parallel and overlapping questions of how past lived experience can be brought to life on film as well as how researchers can use materiality to access the context of lived experience. It asks, how does the creative exploration of the archive through film offer the possibility of a more open dialogue to occur between researchers and curators? And finally, how can film making open up new vistas and avenues for researchers to share findings as well as to transform their own field of research?

When the Body Says No: The Experience of Vaginismus and the Validity of Female Pain

Vaginismus first entered medical discourse in 1861 when Dr J Marion Sims linked symptoms of vaginal hypersensitivity to muscular spasms. Today, vaginismus is similarly defined by the NHS characterised as an involuntary tightening of muscles around the vagina whenever penetration is attempted. Although these medical descriptions do not encapsulate every experience of the condition, it is generally agreed that the condition makes penetration near impossible, and very painful. The use of tampons, penetrative intercourse, cervical examinations, and other activities become sources of shame and fear for sufferers. Vaginismus is neglected as it is an underdiagnosed condition, which sufferers often must treat themselves, away from medical support. It is contested by doctors, who do not believe that there is anything wrong with the sufferer. By taking the experience of vaginismus as my starting point, I argue that the medical response to vaginismus is shaped by wider cultural perceptions about the believability of female pain. Female pain is viewed not as fact, but as a misinterpretation of bodily events. This article highlights the issues that surround the disbelief of female pain in relation to vaginismus, and how such perceptions might be altered. Key words: vaginismus, sexual pain disorders, sexual practice, women's medicine, heteronormativity

‘Modest’ and ‘Faithful’: Centering Pseudonyms in Fiction in Early Twentieth Century Chinese Periodicals

In this article, I attempt to show that literary works produced by authors who have their identities hidden behind pseudonyms may further current understandings of the May Fourth and New Culture literary canon. I examine two fictional short stories, written by Xuxin (‘Modest’) and Zhongyan (‘Faithful’), and explore how these short stories reinforce or nuance established understandings of the May Fourth and New Culture canon. I examine their works within the context of the May Fourth and New Culture movements and attempt to offer a comparative analysis of these two short stories, while suggesting that more attention should be given to authors whose identities were hidden.

Ecological apocalypticism in Ella Hickson's Oil, Lucy Kirkwood's The Children and Duncan Macmillan's Lungs

The vast spatio-temporal dimensions of global warming and ecological devastation are hyberobjects (Morton, 2013) which humans are able to compute but not directly see. This is problematic for dramatists and theatre makers whose work tends to focus on portraying more immediate emotions on a human scale. Diamond (2016) has written insightfully about a number of contemporary British plays which attempt to grapple with the “genre-bending” hyperobject of global warming, either by working within the limitations of conventional genres or by extending the boundaries of those genres. In this essay, I develop her theme by asking how dramaturgical form rather than genre may be harnessed in this task. I examine how Kirkwood exploits the naturalistic form in her play The Children to show the impacts of the hyperobject on the characters’ lives. I further examine how the open time, open place structure (pace Jeffreys, 2019) of Hickson’s reconfigured Brechtian epic Oil enables the playwright to connect human and ecological timescales. I explore how Macmillan has his dramaturgical cake and eats it by pioneering, in his play Lungs, a hybridised form which offers a highly affective audience experience, aligning human and more-than-human timescales. Finally, I theorise that playwrights and theatre makers might profitably experiment with such formal hybridisations in future attempts to dramatize the hyperobject’s ontological vastness.

Alone with One's Thoughts: Wittgenstein on Philosophical Thinking in Isolation

This paper explores the relationship between isolation and philosophical thinking by exploring Wittgenstein’s own experiences of isolation and how they intersect with key themes in his philosophical work. In particular, I explore the relationship between isolation, honesty, and one of the central problems posed in Wittgenstein’s later work: the problem of dogmatism. I conclude with some observations about how Wittgenstein’s experiences of isolation might be considered to be ‘liberatory’ experience.