The paper proposes a reading of Claude McKay’s The Clinic (circa 1923) as a text addressing the male diseased body and the clinic as symbolic sites of stigma. More specifically, the male (homo)sexualized body at the center of McKay’s poetic investigation is scrutinized according to two crucial axes of dis-identification: sexuality and ethnicity. Drawing on the Foucauldian genesis of the clinic as a space of signification of illness and of the body, I contend that McKay stages the shift from medical to poetic gaze and scrutinizes the diseased body as a site of stigma and shame to disavow, in order to advocate a new, idealized model of black subjectivity.

Staging the Stigma: Syphilis and Its Metaphors in Claude McKay’s The Clinic

IULIANO, FIORENZO
2014-01-01

Abstract

The paper proposes a reading of Claude McKay’s The Clinic (circa 1923) as a text addressing the male diseased body and the clinic as symbolic sites of stigma. More specifically, the male (homo)sexualized body at the center of McKay’s poetic investigation is scrutinized according to two crucial axes of dis-identification: sexuality and ethnicity. Drawing on the Foucauldian genesis of the clinic as a space of signification of illness and of the body, I contend that McKay stages the shift from medical to poetic gaze and scrutinizes the diseased body as a site of stigma and shame to disavow, in order to advocate a new, idealized model of black subjectivity.
2014
Claude McKay, Syphilis and literature, Medicine and literature
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
2014 staging the stigma.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: Articolo
Tipologia: Abstract
Dimensione 306.63 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
306.63 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11584/113853
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact