How do we conceptualize the relationship between suffering, art, and aesthetics from within the broader framework of social, cultural, and political thought today? This book brings together a range of intellectuals from the social sciences and humanities to speak to theoretical debates around the questions of suffering in art and suffering and art.

Introduction: Suffering in Art: Redrawing the Boundaries; Ratiba Hadj-Moussa and Michael Nijhawan 1. In Praise of Ambiguity: On the Visual Economy of Distant Suffering; Fuyuki Kurasawa 2. Denial and Challenges of Modernity: Suffering, Recognition, and Dignity in Sammy Baloji's Photography; Bogumil Jewsiewicki 3. Events, Images, and Affect: The Tsunami in the Folk Art of Bengal; Roma Chatterji 4. Vocalizations of Suffering; Caterina Pasqualino 5. The Art of Suffering: Postcolonial (Mis)Apprehensions of Nigerian Art; Conerly Casey 6. The Past's Suffering and the Body's Suffering: Algerian Cinema and the Challenge of Experience; Ratiba Hadj-Moussa 7. The Diasporic Rasa of Suffering: Notes on the Aesthetics of Image and Sound in Indo-Caribbean and Sikh Art; Michael Nijhawan and Anna C. Schultz 8. Suffering, Animals, Spectators, and the Challenge of Contemporary Art; Nathalie Heinich