Beyond the Rhetoric of Pain

Beyond the Rhetoric of Pain presents a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to the current research on pain from a variety of scholarly angles within Literature, Film and Media, Game Studies, Art History, Hispanic Studies, Memory Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, and Law. Through the combination of these perspectives, this volume goes beyond the existing structures within and across these disciplines framing new concepts of pain in attitude, practice, language, and ethics of response to pain.

Comprised of fourteen unique essays, Beyond the Rhetoric of Pain maintains a common thread of analysis using a historical and cultural lens to explore the rhetoric of pain. Considering various methodologies, this volume questions the ethical, social and political demands pain makes upon those who feel, watch or speak it. Arranged to move from historical cases and relevance of pain in history towards the contemporary movement, topics include pain as a social figure, rhetorical tool, artistic metaphor, and political representation in jurisprudence.

Berenike Jung is a lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London. Previously, she worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Media Studies in Tübingen. She received her PhD in Film and Television Studies from the University of Warwick in 2016.

Stella Bruzzi, Director of Research for Film and Television Studies, has written the highly acclaimed New Documentary, amongst many other publications. In 2011 she was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.