In The Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry argues that “there is no language for pain… it (more than any other phenomenon) resists verbal objectification” (12). Scarry sees this inaccessibility in two ways: the individual in pain cannot effectively express their pain in language; the people around the individual struggle both to understand that the individual is in pain and to gauge the dimensions of this pain. This misunderstanding has various implications—it can prevent a patient from receiving proper pain management; it can also prevent politicians from effectively addressing the pain of certain groups, such as opioid addicts or poor people. For this prompt, use Burner’s “Mastectomy Letter” and write a paper that analyzes how this work addresses pain’s resistance to language. Please note that the work may explore pain’s resistance to language and/or how individuals overcome this resistance.
Have:
a. A clear, contestable thesis. Please see the “Thesis Writing” handout for further information about writing a thesis.
b. Some engagement with the critical source (i.e. Sontag, Scarry, or Samuels) and/or with the class discussion (for prompt d).
c. Robust literary analysis that supports your thesis. Please see the “Close Reading” handout for further information
d. Strong, clean prose that is free of grammatical, surface, and citation errors. Please see the “Grammar Handout” for a list of common grammar errors and how to fix them.
NO OTHER SOURCES ARE TO BE USED.
In The Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry argues that “there is no language for pain… it (more than any other phenomenon) resists verbal objectification” (12). Scarry sees this inaccessibility in two ways: the individual in pain cannot effectively express their pain in language; the people around the individual struggle both to understand that the individual is in pain and to gauge the dimensions of this pain. This misunderstanding has various implications—it can prevent a patient from receiving proper pain management; it can also prevent politicians from effectively addressing the pain of certain groups, such as opioid addicts or poor people. For this prompt, use Burner’s “Mastectomy Letter” and write a paper that analyzes how this work addresses pain’s resistance to language. Please note that the work may explore pain’s resistance to language and/or how individuals overcome this resistance.
