German Peasants' War, Visual Culture, and Political Subjectivation

Jonathan Trayner lectures at Southampton Solent University, UK.

• Introduction 1. Peasants and Protest 2. Peasant Manifestos 3. The Peasants and Representation 4. War and Revolt 5. The Carnival of Monsters Conclusion: Political Subjectivation and Visual Culture

"Jonathan Trayner revitalises the longstanding political fascination with the German Peasants’ War of the early sixteenth century by foregrounding the visual culture of subaltern revolt. Reimagining class struggle in the interregnum between feudalism and capitalism through the visual ephemera of the printing press, Trayner ties the material culture of peasant protagonism into a wider performative context of preaching, song, theatre, riot and carnival. Like the prints that he studies, this book is an eye opener."-- Dave Beech, University of the Arts London."The German Peasants’ War was the largest mass insurrection in European history before the French Revolution. Extended research in recent years has revealed much about its causes, course, and consequences. However, that research has also threatened to rob its primary participants of their voices. Many scholars have challenged the value of printed sources supporting the insurgents to provide insight into the grievances and goals of a largely illiterate peasantry. Jonathan Trayner restores those voices by shifting our attention away from this almost exclusive focus on the printed word to consideration of the printed image and its interaction with the printed word, and from the content of those images and words to how they were viewed and used by the participants. The result is an intriguing study of the developing subjectivation and agency of commoners in the social transition from the Middle Ages to modernity."-- Geoffrey Dipple, University of Alberta