Contours of the Flesh
The Semiotics of Pain
Darlene M. Juschka [+–]
University of Regina
Darlene M. Juschka is an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Religious and Critical Studies at the University of Regina, Canada.
In the Eurowest pain is discursively framed as something that elides discourse and therefore is outside language. In this framing, pain, as outside language, is given asocial and ahistorical status understood to be beyond human construction. Indeed, played out in systems of belief and practice, pain acts as a medium for reciprocal relations with the metaphysical other since it too is understood as originating and sharing a part in the ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ from which the metaphysical, and therefore truth, is understood to emerge. Understood as part of this domain, pain is linked to truth and therefore understood to be a means to truth; hence the use of torture to secure the truth. With this kind of discursive framing, this book works to make apparent the rhetorical play of pain demonstrating its social and political imperatives.
Table of Contents
Prelims
Acknowledgements [+–] vi
In the Eurowest pain is discursively framed as something that elides discourse and therefore is outside language. In this framing, pain, as outside language, is given asocial and ahistorical status understood to be beyond human construction. Indeed, played out in systems of belief and practice, pain acts as a medium for reciprocal relations with the metaphysical other since it too is understood as originating and sharing a part in the ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ from which the metaphysical, and therefore truth, is understood to emerge. Understood as part of this domain, pain is linked to truth and therefore understood to be a means to truth; hence the use of torture to secure the truth. With this kind of discursive framing, this book works to make apparent the rhetorical play of pain demonstrating its social and political imperatives.
Introduction
Introduction [+–] 1-5
The introduction names the problem that the text challenges. This section poses the argument that pain is incisively discursive, but more specifically, pain is an indexical sign that serves many purposes in human social formations. This section also provides a brief overview of chapters found in the book.
Chapter 1
Pain, the Body and Signification [+–] 6-28
This chapter provides an overview of pertinent literature on the body engaging the general conceptualization of the body in the Eurowest. Subsequently, the chapter examines the discursive formation of pain in relation to the body and from here examines the playout of the body in pain in association with myth, ritual and sign-symbol.
Chapter 2
In Chapter 2 I identify, examine and compare the separation of human and non-human animals in the Classic Maya myth the Popul Vuh and the Iliad of ancient Greece through the use of pain. In both locations anthropogonic myths record the effort to establish human animals as different from, and necessarily superior to (in greater and lesser degrees), non-human animals via the indexical sign of pain. My intention, beyond showing similarities and differences between these myths with regard to this separation, is to demonstrate how systems of belief and practice are central, and in some instances foundational, to how we determine the boundaries and borders of existence.
Chapter 3
In this chapter I argue that at the center of the construction of Spartan masculinity is the signifier pain. Pain determines the boundaries between proper and improper masculinity. This chapter investigates, then, the mythic construction of Spartan masculinity in the works of modern and ancient male authors showing how pain as indexical sign deployed in myth and ritual is a central signifier by which to mark proper masculinity, Spartan and otherwise.
Chapter 4
Penetrating the Body of the Masculine Other: White Masculinity, War, and Ritualized Torture [+–] 106-123
This chapter develops a discussion on the gender and racial coding of pain in the modern Eurowest. To do this I examine the 2003 events at Abu Ghraib. Captured on camera are what appears to be the ritualized torture and humiliation of a number of Iraqi prisoners. It is my intention to make visible the link between the indexical sign of pain, evoked through torture, white masculinity, and the racialized other to show how the ritualized use of pain demarcates proper and improper masculinities.
Chapter 5
Cut to the Bone: Pain, Foreskins, and Masculinities [+–] 124-153
Chapter 5 engages in a genealogical study of male circumcision examining five circumcision events from the modern period to ancient Egypt. As with the previous chapters, this chapter shows how across cultures and time pain is a central component to the construction of masculinities; this time centred on the penis as the privileged sign-symbol of masculinity.
Conclusion
Afterword [+–] 154-155
The afterward provides a crystallization of the ideas and insights that emerged from the analyses in each chapter.
End Matter
Notes [+–] 156-166
In the Eurowest pain is discursively framed as something that elides discourse and therefore is outside language. In this framing, pain, as outside language, is given asocial and ahistorical status understood to be beyond human construction. Indeed, played out in systems of belief and practice, pain acts as a medium for reciprocal relations with the metaphysical other since it too is understood as originating and sharing a part in the ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ from which the metaphysical, and therefore truth, is understood to emerge. Understood as part of this domain, pain is linked to truth and therefore understood to be a means to truth; hence the use of torture to secure the truth. With this kind of discursive framing, this book works to make apparent the rhetorical play of pain demonstrating its social and political imperatives.
References [+–] 167-180
In the Eurowest pain is discursively framed as something that elides discourse and therefore is outside language. In this framing, pain, as outside language, is given asocial and ahistorical status understood to be beyond human construction. Indeed, played out in systems of belief and practice, pain acts as a medium for reciprocal relations with the metaphysical other since it too is understood as originating and sharing a part in the ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ from which the metaphysical, and therefore truth, is understood to emerge. Understood as part of this domain, pain is linked to truth and therefore understood to be a means to truth; hence the use of torture to secure the truth. With this kind of discursive framing, this book works to make apparent the rhetorical play of pain demonstrating its social and political imperatives.
Index [+–] 181-193
In the Eurowest pain is discursively framed as something that elides discourse and therefore is outside language. In this framing, pain, as outside language, is given asocial and ahistorical status understood to be beyond human construction. Indeed, played out in systems of belief and practice, pain acts as a medium for reciprocal relations with the metaphysical other since it too is understood as originating and sharing a part in the ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ from which the metaphysical, and therefore truth, is understood to emerge. Understood as part of this domain, pain is linked to truth and therefore understood to be a means to truth; hence the use of torture to secure the truth. With this kind of discursive framing, this book works to make apparent the rhetorical play of pain demonstrating its social and political imperatives.
ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9781845539603
Price (Hardback)
£75.00 / $100.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9781845539610
Price (Paperback)
£24.95 / $32.00
ISBN (eBook)
9781800500020
Price (eBook)
Individual
£24.95 / $32.00
Institutional
£75.00 / $100.00
£24.95 / $32.00
Institutional
£75.00 / $100.00
Publication
19/04/2021
Pages
200
Size
234 x 156mm
Readership
scholars
Illustration
1 figure
