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 eighth century CE a doctor tears the veil off the caliphâs concubine; in the Renaissance physicians and witchfinders look for stigmata; in the eighteenth century hysteria is located in âthe nervesâ; in the early twentieth century Charcot displays hysteria to audience or camera and Freud âwipes awayâ 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 âhealthâ is not a pleasure but a duty. Keywords: hysteria; the body; skin; Freud; gender; surface-effect Juliet Mitchell wrote in an article of 1998: âhysteriaâs existence is co-terminous with written records of human historyâ (Mitchell 1998: 117). In this sense, hysteria has been witnessing human difference and distress from generation to generation since records began. Hysterics do this in a very direct
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Witnessing through the skin: the hysteric's body as text
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Follow Journal of Romance Studies
, Volume 9 (3)
Berghahn Books – Dec 1, 2009
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