The Disfigured Face in American Literature, Film, and Television

Cornelia Klecker, Gudrun M. Grabher

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000488210
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Popular Culture
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Poem / A Creative Foreword: Encounter
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• The disfigured face in American literature, film, and television: Introduction
• Facial disfigurement: A plastic surgeon’s perspective
• PART I Facial disfigurement in American literature
• PART II Facial disfigurement in American film and television
• Index