“To the pain.” This challenging phrase is what makes the bad guy succumb, without a fight, in The Princess Bride, so powerful is his imagining of what it would be like to live in permanent agony. This quarter we will focus on how a small number of thinkers have related our fear of bodily hurt to understanding how “the real” is created, and who has access to shaping it. We will read Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain and Stephen Greenblatt’s essay “The Touch of the Real,” and then examine a few responses to these widely cited works by those like Eric Hayot. The quarter will end with you writing an essay that develops your theoretical critique of these thinkers. Overall, this course is structured not just on reading for content, but on thinking about what theory is for and the various forms theoretical writing can take. The goal of this course is to make it less about these writers themselves, and more about thinking about ways to get you comfortable with explaining, debating, and connecting theoretical arguments, both in class conversation and in written work. Note: Scarry’s book has been widely taught, so used copies should be readily available.



The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World [Paperback]
Elaine Scarry

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (April 23, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195049969
• ISBN-13: 978-0195049961