Segal, Naomi (2009) Witnessing through the skin: the hysteric's body. Journal of Romance Studies 9 (3), pp. 73-85. ISSN 1473-3536.
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Text (Refereed)
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Abstract
How does the hysteric bear witness through her body? This article looks at ways in which, from antiquity to the present day, the hysteric has borne witness to the anxiety of her time, age and sex through the speaking surface of her skin. In the 8th century CE a doctor tears the veil off the caliph’s concubine; in the Renaissance physicians and witch-finders look for stigmata; in the eighteenth century hysteria is located in ‘the nerves’; in the early twentieth century Charcot displays hysteria to audience or camera and Freud ‘wipes away’ the memories of Frau Emmy von N. What anxieties mark the surface of the troubled young woman of today? In its conclusion, this article suggests that it is exposure that haunts the outside of her body, circling it without protection, in a world where ‘health’ is not a pleasure but a duty.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | psychoanalysis; women; touch; hysteria; the body; skin; Freud; gender; surface-effect |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication |
| Depositing User: | Naomi Segal |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jan 2013 10:22 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Aug 2023 12:32 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/5441 |
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