| Title | Inscribing the Soul |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Cerebral Ventricles as Symbolic and Material Boxes |
| Contributor | Jameson Kısmet Bell(author) |
| Landing page | https://www.matteringpress.org/books/boxes/read/4-o-inscribing-the-soul-cerebral-ventricles-as-symbolic-and-material-boxes |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Jameson Kısmet Bell |
| Publisher | Mattering Press |
| Published on | 2020-08-12 |
| Long abstract | This essay will guide the reader through the definition, treatment, performance, and access to a particular set of medieval and renaissance boxes that were located in the centre of the brain, namely, the cerebral ventricles, or cells. A ventricle was an anatomical space or cavity whose purpose was to contain. The stomach, heart, bowels, bladder, chest, and uterus were all defined as ventricles or ‘little bellies’, where ventricle was the diminutive of the Latin venter or belly. A second term was also commonly applied to these important mental spaces, namely cellula, the diminutive of cella, or ‘small store-room, chamber or cabinet’ (Whitaker 2007: 48). Until the mid-sixteenth century, three cavities in the brain were thought to contain the faculties of the soul: imagination, reason, and memory (Green 2003: 131). These anatomical spaces were defined by their metonymic quality of ‘continuity’ and ‘containment’, becoming secure little boxes for the soul. In the sixteenth century, however, through a shift in the medium of communication—namely from oral signifiers to graphic and typographic signifiers—the power of the body to be ‘continuous’ and ‘contained’ was ruptured by two related inscription practices. Cutting the body and inscribing the results on paper effectively transferred the soul from inside the head to the surface of the printed page. |
| Page range | pp. 54–71 |
| Media | 1 illustration |
Jameson Kısmet Bell is an assistant professor in the Department of Western Languages and Literatures at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. His research interests include literature and medicine, the body and knowledge, as well as performance and media studies. His recent book, Performing the Sixteenth-Century Brain: Beyond Word and Image Inscriptions (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2018), bridges literary criticism and history to offer close readings of the first visually accurate representations of the body and brain.