Overview

"The presentation of bodies in pain has been a major concern in Western art since the time of the Greeks. The Christian tradition is closely entwined with such themes, from the central images of the Passion to the representations of bloody martyrdoms. The remnants of this tradition are evident in contemporary images from Abu Ghraib. In the last forty years, the body in pain has also emerged as a recurring theme in performance art. Recently, authors such as Elaine Scarry, Susan Sontag, and Giorgio Agamben have written about these themes. The scholars in this volume add to the discussion, analyzing representations of pain in art and the media. Their essays are firmly anchored on consideration of the images, not on whatever actual pain the subjects suffered. At issue is representation, before and often apart from events in the world. Part One concerns practices in which the appearance of pain is understood as expressive. Topics discussed include the strange dynamics of faked pain and real pain, contemporary performance art, international photojournalism, surrealism, and Renaissance and Baroque art. Part Two concerns representations that cannot be readily assigned to that genealogy: the Chinese form of execution known as lingchi (popularly the ""death of a thousand cuts""), whippings in the Belgian Congo, American lynching photographs, Boer War concentration camp photographs, and recent American capital punishment. These examples do not comprise a single alternate genealogy, but are united by the absence of an intention to represent pain. The book concludes with a roundtable discussion, where the authors discuss the ethical implications of viewing such images."

Full Product Details

Author:   Maria Pia Di Bella (EHESS, France) ,  James Elkins (Art Institute of Chicago, USA)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9781138108417

ISBN 10:   1138108413
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   24 May 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Preface James Elkins and Maria Pia Di Bella Part 1: Expressive Pain Introduction James Elkins 1. Sculpture and Pathognomics in Classical France Tomas Macsotay 2. The Faked Pain of the Artist: Empathy or Sympathy, Compassion or Concealment? Kirstin Ringelberg 3. Empfindnis and Self-Inflicted Pain in Performance Art Helge Meyer 4. Sontag’s Regarding and Bataille’s Unknowing Louis Kaplan 5. A Painful Labor: Photography and Responsibility Sharon Sliwinski 6. On The Complicity Between Visual Analysis and Torture: A Cut-by-Cut Account of Lingchi Photographs James Elkins 7. Pain in Public Holly Edwards Part 2: Other Traditions Introduction Maria Pia Di Bella 8. Our Very Own Chinese Postcards from Hell Tim Brook 9. Flogging Photographs from the Congo Free State John Peffer 10. The Public Display of Torture Photos Dora Apel 11. A Feeling for Images: Medieval Personae in Contemporary Photojournalism Valentin Groebner 12. Confronting Horror: Emily Hobhouse and the Concentration Camp: Photographs of the South African War Michael Godby 13. Observing Executions: from Spectator to Witness Maria Pia Di Bella Roundtable Conversation

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Author Information

Maria Pia Di Bella is Senior Research Fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France. James Elkins is E.C. Chadbourne Chair in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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