Face transplantation and the anatomy of facelessness

• Suzannah Biernoff ^[1]
  1. [1] University of London

     University of London

     Reino Unido

     
• Localización: European Journal of anatomy, ISSN-e 1136-4890, Vol. 24, Nº. Extra 1 ('On Disgust'), 2020 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Supplement 1), págs. 29-37
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Heather Laine Talley locates the still-experimental technique of face transplantation within a contemporary ‘disfigurement imaginary’ that equates facial difference with social death. This paper extends Talley’s account by consider-ing the ideological and affective components of ‘facelessness’ as a shared cultural idea. The first part of the paper argues that ‘facelessness’ has a history that links the stigma of facial war injuries in early twentieth century Europe to current assump-tions about the horror of disfigurement. The sec-ond part of the paper uses Georges Franju’s Les Yeux sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face, 1959) to examine the aesthetics of horror and the uses of cinematic disgust. The paper concludes with a dis-cussion of the ‘framing’ or management of disgust in the contexts of transplant medicine and anatom-ical illustration. Face transplantation, it is argued, presents a particular challenge to the ‘spare parts’ model that has dominated the biomedical ap-proach to organ transfer.