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Portraits of Violence: War and the Aesthetics of Disfigurement (Corporealities: Discourses Of Disability) - Hardcover

Book 23 of 40: Corporealities: Discourses Of Disability

Biernoff, Suzannah

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9780472130290: Portraits of Violence: War and the Aesthetics of Disfigurement (Corporealities: Discourses Of Disability)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0472130293 ISBN 13: 9780472130290
Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2017

Synopsis

Portraits of Violence explores the image and idea of facial disfigurement in one of its most troubling modern formations, as a symbol and consequence of war. It opens with Nina Berman’s iconic photograph Marine Wedding, which provoked a debate about the medical, military, and psychological response to serious combat injuries. While these issues remain urgent, it is equally crucial to interrogate the representation of war and injury. The concepts of valor, heroism, patriotism, and courage assume visible form and do their cultural work when they are personified and embodied. The mutilated or disabled veteran’s body can connote the brutalizing, dehumanizing potential of modern combat.
 
Suzannah Biernoff draws on a wide variety of sources mainly from WWI but also contemporary photography and computer games. Each chapter revolves around particular images: Marine Wedding is discussed alongside Stuart Griffiths’ portraits of British veterans; Henry Tonks’ drawings of WWI facial casualties are compared to the medical photographs in the Gillies Archives; the production of portrait masks for the severely disfigured is approached through the lens of documentary film and photography; and finally the haunting image of one of Tonks’s patients reappears in BioShock, a highly successful computer game. The book simultaneously addresses a neglected area in disability studies; puts disfigurement on the agenda for art history and visual studies; and makes a timely and provocative contribution to the literature on the First World War.

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About the Author

Suzannah Biernoff is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Visual Culture at Birkbeck, University of London.

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Publisher
University of Michigan Press
Publication date
2017
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0472130293
ISBN 13 
9780472130290
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
224
Rating
  • 4.67 out of 5 stars
    6 ratings by Goodreads