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Abstract: DISPLAYING, HIDING: NARRATIVES AND IMAGES OF SARCOMA

 Natalia Fernández Díaz-Cabal, Ph.D.

Autonomous University of Barcelona and University of Shanghai

DISPLAYING, HIDING: NARRATIVES AND IMAGES OF SARCOMA

 

Despite its "insignificance" from the point of view of its social and cultural impact, sarcoma, throughout its history as an identified and identifiable clinical entity, shows some curiosities that we would like to deal with: its visibility from the monstrous (the dimensions of a sarcoma can be of a remarkable enormity compared to other malignant tumors) to the invisibility of the term itself (sarcoma evokes bitter destinies and especially since the irruption of AIDS - Kaposi's sarcoma - gives it a definitive deadly connotation). This displaying or exhibiting objectifies the patient - the principle that the patient is only his/her illness applies. The human subject is not of interest; only his/her exceptionality and stigma do.

In order to understand the meaning of what is displayed, it is necessary to delve into the etymology of the word "sarcoma", which comes from the Greek and which, from Galen until the late 19th century, was used in its most literal sense: fleshy excrescence. This excrescence is what was shown at medical and media gatherings, and to a general public eager for oddities, as were human specimens exhibited in several cities in Europe at that time. Currently, sarcoma is just a rare tumor (a variety of rare tumors) and narratives of patients remain silenced (if not ignored).

We are going to explore this initial body display at the end of 19th century, where the patients were just objects to be exposed. It will be the best framework to approach to the work of the Irish writer Lucy Grealy, author of  “Autobiography of a face”, where she narrates her experience with Ewing sarcoma in her face and her permanent war against mirrors due to deformity and the social imperative of being beautiful.

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