UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ “How Skin Can See:” A Phenomenological and Cultural Account of Touch as Witness in the Latter Half of the Twentieth-Century A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LITERATURE by Prema Purigali Prabhakar March 2012 The Dissertation of Prema Purigali Prabhakar is approved: _________________________________ Professor Tyrus Miller, Chair _________________________________ Professor Vilashini Cooppan _________________________________ Professor Jody Greene _________________________________ Professor H. Marshall Leicester __________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Prema Purigali Prabhakar 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vi Preface............................................................................................................................1 Chapter One ................................................................................................................ 14 Chapter Two................................................................................................................ 90 Chapter Three............................................................................................................ 137 Chapter Four ............................................................................................................. 210 Appendix A ............................................................................................................... 310 Appendix B ............................................................................................................... 315 Appendix C................................................................................................................333 Appendix D................................................................................................................342 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 350 iii Abstract Prema Purigali Prabhakar “How Skin Can See:” A Phenomenological and Cultural Account of Touch as Witness in the Latter Half of the Twentieth-Century My dissertation project on embodiment and touch uses literature, performance art, photography and theatre to explore how non-normative bodies— mentally ill, physically disabled, queer or violated bodies—reconfigure concepts of touch in the 20th century. This project will assert that contemporary experience, characterized by ever-changing technologies and traumatic historical events, has not only created new ways in which to define the body, but has also created new ideas about how art and the individual’s body can and do touch. By exploring touch through witnessing, objects, and personal and historical trauma, my project ultimately seeks to answer the question posed by feminist historian of science, Donna Haraway in Simians, Cyborgs and Women, “Why should our bodies end at the skin?” My project argues that the inherent nature of touch means that our bodies do not and can never end at our individual skins. In order to situate this interdisciplinary project in a theoretical and historical framework, my project uses phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work on the iv body; along with Jean Luc-Nancy’s writing on touch; Elaine Scarry’s work on the body under the nation-state; Amelia Jones and Petra Kuppers work on performance; Elizabeth Grosz, Donna Haraway and Sara Ahmed’s feminist phenomenology. Additionally, I will use the innovative methodology of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Each of these theorists both provides a genealogy for the artistic disciplines I am examining and also helps to create a situational and culturally specific interpretation of what the body is, means, and can do. The innovative aspect of this project lies with its comparative consideration of multiple genres and theoretical frameworks and with its argument for a theory of the body that looks closely at phenomenological and lived experience. Given that my project examines phenomenological experience by focusing on non-normative, disenfranchised bodies, this is necessarily a project of ethics. Non-normative bodies allow us to ask questions about what our responsibilities are when touch is negotiated between individuals whose hands, skin or sexual organs have been destroyed; and how social conceptions of purity, danger and contamination are negotiated between individuals and their society. If our bodies do not end at our skins, as Haraway claims and if our body lines are fluid, as Deleuze and Guattari assert, then how do we a create a responsible way of touching one another? . The many ways in which we can touch each other in contemporary culture: through computers, phones, public spaces, weapons, skin on skin, also makes it harder to negotiate how to touch each iv other ethically with a touch that is empathetic—what I name “witnessing touch-- rather than a touch which is fragmenting and destructive v Acknowledgments I have been incredibly blessed to have so many loving, compassionate and intelligent family and friends. Know that I can never be grateful enough for all of your love and support. Xo. I would particularly like to thank the following people, each of whom had a direct impact on the execution and completion of this dissertation: Professor Tyrus Miller, the chair of my dissertation committee, for his archive of knowledge, his dedication and professionalism and his ability to tolerate my stubbornness and independence. The members of my dissertation committee: Vilashini Cooppan for her unwavering kindness and her constant engagement with my work; Jody Greene for her incisive intelligence and keen understanding. ; March Leicester for his perceptiveness and flexibility. This dissertation would never have been completed without the brilliant commentary, excellent editing and, especially, the unwavering encouragement of my “peer committee” : Sophie Rollins, Eireene Nealand, Helen Hauser and James Wallen. vi Thanks to Poorni Otilingam for being my unofficial dissertation coach; no matter how frustrated, tired or upset you were, you always found the time check in with me, help me through my work and support me with your warm words of understanding. Of course, thanks to my parents, Rupina and P.K. Prabhakar who never forced me to become a medical doctor or an IT professional , who encouraged my imagination and love of reading and who will always be more intelligent and more generous than I will ever be. Thanks to my patient, compassionate husband-person Sean who listened, encouraged and supported me through this process unflaggingly. And who is still funny and giving and kind, despite having to live with my anxiety and frustration during the writing of this dissertation. And to Esmeralda zuzu-cat for her calm companionship during my long writing, researching and day dreaming sessions! vii Preface: “How Skin Can See:” A Phenomenological and Cultural Account of Touch as Witness in the Latter Half of the Twentieth-Century Mappings: Preliminary thoughts on mapping the body This is a map of my dissertation. I have never liked maps and have always found them difficult to read; their widely placed arrows and their various (incongruous) colors that highlight different types of terrain. However, because this is a dissertation on the body, a ‘map of the body’ would look less like a road map , pleated and tucked into the plastic pocket of a car, and more like an X-ray. Of course, X-rays are less egalitarian than maps; you need some expertise to read them, some education to interpret their symbols. When the untrained eye looks at an x-ray, it sees a flat white shell of bone on a murky grey plain. Maybe, the eye observes a darkened area of calcification or the dangling digit of a break. If we can see the muscles, they appear crude like shapes fashioned out of play dough and stuck rather haphazardly onto the delicacy of our bones. The spine is a series of hooks that hangs our skin. But as with the geographical map, the map of the body—the X-ray—is flat, two dimensional; its representations of the body are unsatisfactory; the roundness and closeness of shape and texture are entirely missing. Coming back from the dentist, a friend asked that rather than keep the X-rays of her jaw and teeth as a memento of the procedure she had undergone, she be given the teeth that were extracted during the 1 procedure. The ghostly X-ray of the jaw was a poor memento of the dental procedure compared to the glossy slickness of the tooth and the thin blood root hanging off of the tooth’s craggy underside. So this is a dissertation not about how the body looks, but about how it is touched and about how we experience this touch. When my friend touches her tooth, does the pain of dental surgery come back to her? Does she feel a throbbing in her jaw where the tooth once lay? Or does she merely experience the tooth as a strange object, the size and feel of a small marble, lying in her hand? As the title of this dissertation suggests, how do we see through the skin? Our skin has so many more ‘eyes’ than our face. It has a multitude of pores breathing in and out like fish gills and a complex twining of nerves, many of which are barely covered by a thin layer