Narrative skin repair: Bearing witness to mediatized representations of self-harm

Abstract

At a recent academic conference I attended a presentation on Marina de Van’s 2002 film Dans Ma Peau (“In My Skin”). From the outset, the presenter cautioned that this “dermatological horror” contained graphic imagery of self-harm including the protagonist tearing at, sucking on and eating her own, self-inflicted flesh wounds.1 She then proceeded to show clips from scenes she felt were “least explicit." Upon the first, three members of the already small audience sprang out of their seats and hurriedly left the room. The rest of us stayed in rapt, if uneasy, attention. Subsequently, I became curious about what happened in these moments before the presenter’s discussion had even gotten underway. What compelled the three to leave? What motivated the rest of us to stay? Moreover, beyond simply staying to watch, what could it mean to “bear witness” to expressions of self-harm in a highly mediated context such as this? Is there a distinction to be made between curious voyeurism and ethical witnessing here? What kinds of spectator identifications or dis- identifications are incited by mediatized representations of self-harm? And how do these shape possibilities for intellectual engagement and understanding?.