Abstract

In this paper, I am investigating the body as an area of the discourse, a site of the multiplicity of events, an object of transference—a space where wills and powers become activated, the historical realities set in motion, and endowed with meanings. I have encountered two types of historical narratives investigating the artistic responses taking form of the grotesque, uncanny, and surreal handling of the body. The first type takes form of the first-person account, and relies on retelling, describing, and elucidating the psycho-physical realities. The second type is told from the point of view of the observing subject. It presupposes clear subject/object division. Through the second type, the attempt is put forward to comprehend the perceived body by giving it unity together with symbolic relevance, and by classifying the multiplicity of perceptual information into categorical groupings that lead towards the understanding of the particular as a segment of the general pattern. Rather than looking into these two types of narratives as enclosed unities, these paper examines “zones of intensity”, and perceptible ambiguities occurring through their representational activation.