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Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, this work explores the nature of physical suffering. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Henry Kissinger. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain difficult to describe in words, it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme cases to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry goes on to analyse the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of warfare and torture, and she demonstrates how political regimes use the power of physical pain to attack and break down the sufferer's sense of self. Finally she turns to examples of artistic and cultural activity; actions achieved in the face of pain and difficulty.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Pain, War, Torture, creativity, language, War. 0, Douleur, Warfare, Kulturphilosophie, Pijn, Folter, Guerre, Schmerz, Martelen, Fremder Feind, Oorlog, Krieg, Leid, Human body, New York Times reviewed, Building laws, Zoning law, Bj1409 .s35 1985, Bj 1409 s286b 1985, 128Showing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
April 23, 1987, Oxford University Press, USA
in English
0195049969 9780195049961
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2
The body in pain: the making and unmaking of the world
1985, Oxford University Press
in English
0195036018 9780195036015
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Book Details
First Sentence
"NOWHERE is the sadistic potential of a language built on agency so visible as in torture."
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- Created April 29, 2008
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July 14, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 19, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
August 11, 2022 | Edited by MARC Bot | normalize LCCNs |
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April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |