The Politics of Humiliation: A Modern History | Ute Frevert

Ute Frevert Imagem Prospect Magazine
Ute Frevert | Imagem: Prospect Magazine

In this informative book, Ute Frevert examines shame and shaming during the early modern and modern periods, mostly in Germany and Britain, but in other European countries as well. It is based upon her German book, Die Politik der Demütigung: Schauplätze von Macht und Ohnmacht, published in 2017.

One of this new book’s merits is the broad concept of shaming Frevert adopts, which includes not only blatant acts of humiliation such as dunce caps and pillories, but also interactions in which people are forced into demeaning or deferential behaviour. Frevert clearly believes that shaming (defined in this way) has been expressed and experienced universally, not as a result of cultural diffusion, but primarily as a result of basic processes of human interaction. Thus, it has persisted, despite social and normative changes in our world, and will continue in the future. Leia Mais