10.54103/2036-461X/20559
application/pdf
2036-461X
20559
40
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
The Disfigured Face in American Literature, Film and Television, edited by Cornelia Klecker, Gudrun M. Grabher, London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 230 
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
23
Reviews / Comptes rendus
2023-09-22
2023-07-10
2023-09-22
2023-09-22
175-176
Cinéma & Cie
Sara Tongiani
2023/09/22
10.54103/2036-461X/20559
175
University of Pavia
2036-461X
40
en
176
The Disfigured Face in American Literature, Film and Television, edited by Cornelia Klecker, Gudrun M. Grabher, London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 230 
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/20559/18791
23
                                                                                       Cornelia Klecker and Gudrun Grabher
                                                                                       The Disfigured Face in American
                                                                                       Literature, Film, and Television
                                                                                       London: Routledge, 2021, pp. 230
                                                                                       DOI https://doi.org/10.54103/2036-461X/20559




                                                                                         As an introduction to a theme as complex and            social topos, a visual figure and literary motif, the
                                                                                       puzzling as the human face and its disfigurement          human face has been analyzed also as a space and
                                                                                       the authors of The Disfigured Face in American            a scene of facial disfigurement. Facial appearance
                                                                                       Literature, Film, and Television Cornelia Klecker         and its deformity have been associated with moral
                                                                                       and Gudrun Grabher select poetry by Kenneth               character, often with a negative connotation. Above
                                                                                       Sherman from the volume Words for Elephant                all facial disfigurement has been interpreted as a
                                                                                       Man. The face and personal story of the infamous          result of a monstrous condition, corrupted identity,
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License




                                                                                       Elephant Man take shape as an emblem and                  or an evil sign. The aim of The Disfigured Face
                                                                                       symbol of body disfigurement, which became a              is to precisely identify and define the different
                                                                                       sort of spectacle of deformity. Through Kenneth           forms of facial disfigurement and its role, use and
                                                                                       Sherman’s poetry the popular story of a miserable         abuse in literature, cinema, and arts. The book is
                                                                                       freak stands out. The face of the well-known              much more than a collection of essays about the
                                                                                       elephant man, a face “malformed and guileless”,           occurrences of a theme through media, it is rather
                                                                                       introduces the theme of the book, a theme which           a fascinating example of a thorough examination
                                                                                       is one of the most relevant anthropological and           of a prismatic issue and its sprawling proliferation.
                                                                                       cultural topics across centuries and cultures. As         The Disfigured Face is divided into two parts
                                                                                       a part of the body, the fully visible face represents     which offer different critical views of the fictional
                                                                                       an essential component of social identity, calling        representations of facial disfigurement. In the
                                                                                       for cultural meanings. The face is a familiar and         first section, the authors look over the disfigured
                                                                                       universal element which enables self-knowledge            face in American literature, while the second one
                                                                                       and encounters with otherness. The ability to             discusses the characterization of defacement
                                                                                       express emotions, feelings and thoughts through           in American film and television. Referencing a
                                                                                       facial mimicry is unique to human interaction and         vast array of sources, all the chapters draw on a
                                                                                       communication. Therefore, the face represents             complete “exposure” of both traditional connotation
                                                                                       the center of a dialectical relationship between          and contemporary discourses of the subject. This
                                                                                       the gaze of the human being and the community.            fascinating book presents the first cultural and
                                                                                       Singular and ordinary, the face receives both the         historical understanding of facial disfigurement,
                                                                                       gaze of the individual on itself and the one of others,   questioning stereotypical tropes, negative
                                                                                       thus the gaze turns the face into an object. As           implications, and prejudiced simplifications.


                                                                                       Cinéma & Cie vol. 23 no. 40 2023 · ISSN 2036-461X                                                     175
   The book opens with an introduction by Klecker              Man. Gudrun Grabher resumes Sherman’s words,
and Gudrum, followed by an indispensable preface               written on behalf of Elephant man, who represents
by Gerhard Pierer, who investigates the use of                 a sort of fil rouge in the book, connecting the two
facial plastic surgery. Pierer starts with a quotation         parts of it. Indeed, the story of “the ugliest man in
by Gaspare Tagliacozzi (a pioneer of reconstructive            the world” inspires both David Lynch’s movie (The
surgery) that analyzes and discusses the cultural              Elephant Man, 1980) and Bernard Pomerance’s
and social beliefs about this medical practice.                play (The Elephant Man, 1979), which are examined
Pierer retraces the principal historical practices             in the chapter Loving the monster by Suzannah
recognizing in the “tremendous impact of the                   Biernoff. Following Brian Rosenberg’s paradigm
second world war” a dramatic turn which caused                 about freak’s representations in contemporary
the improvement of the surgical techniques. The                cinema, Biernoff illustrates how Elephant man’s
chapter ends with a crucial exploration of the                 face acts as a mirror of society.
conflict between the repairing intervention and the               Male disfigured heroes and villains are the
cosmetic one. Pierer connects a brief outlook into             protagonists of the chapter by Fran Pheasant-
the future of facial plastic surgery, highlighting the         Kelly and the one by Julia Moseneder. In the first
significance of it in the contemporary age. The first          case, Pheasant-Kelly remarks on the negative
part of the book presents a relevant selection of              connotations associated with characters who
the presence of the theme in American literature.              are facially compromised compared to James
Sharrona Pearl looks over two popular and                      Bond’s positive masculinity in Craig-era movies.
feminist novels: The Life and Loves of a She-Devil             Moseneder reviews types of facial disfigurement
by Fay Weldon, and Flavor of the Month by Olivia               in a collection of contemporary television series.
Goldsmith. The women protagonists of these two                 In American Horror Story (2011-), Hannibal (2013-
stories undergo painful and hazardous surgeries                2015), 24 (2001-2010), Breaking Bad (2008-2013),
to converge on an idealistic and perfect body. Pearl           Game of Thrones (2011-2019), among others,
discusses the traditional notion of ugliness and               violent accidents or congenital defects provoke
beauty, putting them into a dialectical relationship.          scars, damages, mutilations, or defacements.
Eventually the author suggests a comparison                    Distinguishing between heroic and villainous
between the makeover of these protagonists                     characters, Moseneder attempts to identify the
and the one realized in the television show The                negative or positive connotations of facial and
Swan. The following chapters by Hayley Mitchell                body disfigurement. Closely related to the previous
Haugen and Sandra Tausel deal with fictional and               chapter, the last chapter offers a close reading of the
malformed characters and their relationship with               medical drama Grey’s Anatomy (2005), analyzing
the other. Haugen applies the model identifying                it in the framework of media representation. The
disability as “narrative prothesis” to James                   author, Cornelia Klecker, shows how the tv-series
Hankins’s novel Drawn; while Tausel explores                   avoid easy stereotypes about facial disfigurement
the case of Wonder, a children’s novel based                   connotations, presenting genuine stories and
on the story of a ten-year boy born with a facial              characters.
deformity (Mandibulofacial Dysostosis or Treacher                 The Disfigured Face in American Literature, Film,
Collins Syndrome). Both these chapters negotiate               and Television is a significant book which expands
“otherness”, emphasizing the contribution of these             and improves the debate around a crucial theme
case studies to the accurate diversification of                and its representations through contemporary
fictional discourses on facial disfigurement.                  media.
   The closing chapter of the book’s first part is a                                                Sara Tongiani
tribute to Elephant Man, trough the analysis of poet                                          [University of Pavia]
Kenneth Sherman’s volume Words for Elephant



176                                                The Disfigured Face in American Literature, Film, and Television
