The Disfigured Face in American Literature, Film, and Television

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Edited by Cornelia Klecker and Gudrun M. Grabher

Type

Studies

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

sociology, United States

Publishing date

2023

Publisher

Routledge

Collection

Routledge Advances in Sociology

1st publishing

2021

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 230 pages
6 x 9 ½ inches (15.5 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-0-367-74314-7

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Book Presentation:
The face, being prominent and visible, is the foremost marker of a person’s identity as well as their major tool of communication. Facial disfigurements, congenital or acquired, not only erase these significant capacities, but since ancient times, they have been conjured up as outrageous and terrifying, often connoting evil or criminality in their associations – a dark secret being suggested "behind the mask," the disfigurement indicating punishment for sin. Complemented by an original poem by Kenneth Sherman and a plastic surgeon’s perspective on facial disfigurement, this book investigates the exploitation of these and further stereotypical tropes by literary authors, filmmakers, and showrunners, considering also the ways in which film, television, and the publishing industry have more recently tried to overcome negative codifications of facial disfigurement, in the search for an authentic self behind the veil of facial disfigurement. An exploration of fictional representations of the disfigured face, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, cultural and media studies, American studies and literary studies with interests in representations of disfigurement and the Other.

About the authors:
Cornelia Klecker is Assistant Professor and Deputy Chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Gudrun M. Grabher was, until recently, Full Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She is the author of Levinas and the Other in Narratives of Facial Disfigurement.

See the publisher website: Routledge