Learning to Feel? An Essay on Death, Sex and Tricksterism in Todd Phillips’s Joker (2019)

In this essay, I will discuss some of the opportunities offered by Todd Phillips’s Joker (2019) to engage in an “interpretative play,” to use the term of Noël Carroll, with this particular work of art, and consider some of the emotional responses that the movie elicits. The perspective in this free-associative essay is subjective, and the aesthetic and non-aesthetic responses to the film elaborated here concentrate on the following selected themes: emotions and sexuality as part of the Joker’s origin story and the Joker’s role as an archetypal trickster in the Jungian sense.Non peer reviewe

Porous Bodies, Porous Minds. Emotions and the Supernatural in the Íslendingasögur (ca. 1200–1400)

In my PhD Thesis, I study the conceptions and representation of emotions in medieval 13th and 14th-century Iceland. I have used Icelandic saga literature as my source material and Icelandic Family sagas (Íslendingasögur) as my main sources. Firstly, I wished to explore in my study the medieval Icelandic folk theory of emotions: what emotions were thought to be, from what they originated and how they operated? Secondly, in earlier research it has been shown that emotions were seldom described in Íslendingasögur. They were mostly represented in dialogue, poetry or in somatic changes (e.g. turning pale). Consequently, I examined whether medieval Icelanders had alternative emotion discourses in literature, in addition to the usual manner of representation. My study consists of qualitative case studies, and I have analysed the sources intertextually. I suggest that medieval Icelanders regarded emotions as movements of the mind. The mind existed in the heart. As a consequence, emotions were considered physical in nature. The human body and therefore also the human mind was considered porous: if the mind of the person was not strong enough, supernatural agents and forces could penetrate theboundaries of his/her body as winds or sharp projectiles. Correspondingly, minds of strong-willed people could penetrate the minds of others. As a result, illness and emotions could upspring. People did not always distinguish between emotions and physical illnesses. Excessive emotions could cause illness, even death. Especially fear, grief and emotions of moral responsibility (e.g. guilt) made people vulnerable to the supernatural influence. Guilt was considered part of the emotional experience of misfortune (ógæfa), and in literature guilt could also be represented as eye pain that was inflicted upon the sufferer by a supernatural agent in a dream. Consequently, supernatural forces and beings were part of the upspring of emotions, but also part of the representation of emotions in literature: They caused the emotion but their presence also represented the emotional turmoil in the lives of the people that the supernatural agents harassed; emotions that had followed from norm transgressions, betrayal and other forms of social disequilibrium. Medieval readers and listeners of the Íslendingasögur were used to interpreting such different layers of meaning in texts.Tarkastelen väitöstutkimuksessani tunnekäsityksiä ja tunteiden representaatiota kirjallisuudessa 1200–1300-lukujen Islannissa. Käyttämäni aineisto koostuu keskiaikaisesta kansankielisestä saagakirjallisuudesta. Päälähteenäni ovat islantilaissaagat (Íslendingasögur). Tutkimuksessani pyrin ensinnäkin selvittämään, millainen oli keskiajan islantilaisten kansanomaisen tunneteoria: mitä tunteet heidän käsityksensä mukaan olivat sekä miten ne syntyivät ja toimivat? Aiemmassa tutkimuksessa on tuotu esille tunneilmaisun vähäisyys saagoissa. Tunteita ilmaistiin hahmojen suorassa puheessa, runomuodossa tai kuvailemalla kehollisia muutoksia (esim. kalpenemista). Toiseksi tutkinkin, oliko keskiajan islantilaisilla muita vaihtoehtoisia tapoja kuvata tunteita kirjallisuudessa yllä esitettyjen lisäksi. Olen tarkastellut lähteitä kvalitatiivisesti tapaustutkimusten kautta ja analysoin tekstejä intertekstuaalisessa suhteessa muuhun aikalaiskirjallisuuteen. Tutkimuksessani esitän, että keskiajan islantilaiset katsoivat tunteen olevan sydämessä sijaitsevan mielen liikettä. Tunne nähtiin keholliseksi. Ihmiskehoa ja siten myös mieltä pidettiin huokoisena: jos mieli ei ollut riittävän vahva, kehon ulkopuoliset yliluonnolliset toimijat ja voimat saattoivat tunkeutua siihen pistosten ja nuolien avulla tai tuulen ja hengityksen välityksellä. Vastaavasti vahvatahtoisten ihmisten mielet saattoivat läpäistä yksilön mielen rajat. Mielen läpäisy aiheutti kohteessa tunteita tai sairautta. Tunteita ei aina eroteltukaan fyysisestä sairaudesta. Liian voimakkaat tunteet saattoivat aiheuttaa paitsi sairautta, myös kuoleman. Erityisesti pelko, suru ja moraalista vastuuta ilmentävä syyllisyydentunne altistivat ihmisen yliluonnollisille voimille. Esimerkiksi syyllisyydentunne liitettiin epäonnena tunnetun ilmiön kokemukseen, ja kirjallisuudessa sitä voitiin kuvata myös silmäsäryllä, jonka yliluonnollinen olento aiheutti kokijalle unessa. Yliluonnolliset olennot olivat osa sekä tunteen syntyä että myös sen representaatiota kirjallisuudessa: ne aiheuttivat tunteen ja toivat olemassaolollaan esille, että ne kohdanneet yksilöt ja yhteisöt olivat syyllistyneet normirikkomukseen tai petokseen, tai että yhteisö oli muuten joutunut tunnekuohunnan ja epätasapainon tilaan. Keskiajan islantilaiset kuulijat ja lukijat olivat tottuneet tulkitsemaan tekstien eri merkityskerroksia.Siirretty Doriast

Having no Power to Return? Suicide and Posthumous Restlessness in Medieval Iceland

The article examines cultural conceptions of the possible afterlives of suicides in medieval (ca. 1200–1400) Iceland: whether those who committed suicide were expected to return as restless dead. It is suggested that suicide corpses were not regarded as inherently dangerous in medieval Iceland. According to the law, those who committed suicide would not be buried in the churchyard, but repentance before the actual moment of death could still make burial in the cemetery possible. The second chance allotted to self-killers raises the question of whether the burial method implied danger and contagion, or merely social exclusion. It is argued that suicide per se was not expected to make the corpse restless. People who were considered weak and powerless in life would not return after death, since posthumous restlessness required that the person had a strong will and motivation to come back. Consequently, in the case of suicides, possible posthumous restlessness depended on the person’s character in life. People with strong will and special magical skills were anticipated to return, whereas other suicides remained passive and peaceful

Genre Matters? : Female Suicide in Mythic, Mytho-Heroic, and Historical Contexts

Peer reviewe

Mediaseksikäs 2000-luvun kuolemanrajakokemus – Tutkimusaineistoa tulevaisuuden historiantutkijalle

Kirja-arvio teoksesta Eben Alexander: Totuus taivaasta. Tiedemiehen silmiä avaava kuolemanrajakokemus. Suom. Sirkka Aulanko. WSOY, Helsinki 2013 [2012]. 190 sivua

Learning to Feel? An Essay on Death, Sex and Tricksterism in Todd Phillips’s Joker (2019)

In this essay, I will discuss some of the opportunities offered by Todd Phillips’s Joker (2019) to engage in an “interpretative play,” to use the term of Noël Carroll, with this particular work of art, and consider some of the emotional responses that the movie elicits. The perspective in this free-associative essay is subjective, and the aesthetic and non-aesthetic responses to the film elaborated here concentrate on the following selected themes: emotions and sexuality as part of the Joker’s origin story and the Joker’s role as an archetypal trickster in the Jungian sense.</p