Atmospheres are both insubstantial and yet very palpable – for example, think about tension that feels so thick you could cut it with a knife. Whether you’re decorating a room or throwing a party, creating the right atmosphere can mean the difference between success and failure. But Dora Zhang argues that no one person is ever in full control of an atmosphere, it’s always something collective, not just a projection of one person’s mood. When it comes to literature, too, atmospheres emerge collectively from the readers, the characters, and the language of the text.
Tag: comedy
We tend to have a visceral response to someone we think is dirty. But Stephanie Newell argues that judging other people as dirty is more in our minds than it is about medical reality. Through examples ranging from the travel diaries of colonial British traders in West Africa to the surprising ways Nigerian popular culture makes comedy out of disease, Stephanie shows how judging people to be dirty always involves a failure to understand them – but sometimes can also spark empathy.