[DOWNLOAD] "Twists of the Blindfold: Torture and Sociality in Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden" by Chasqui # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Twists of the Blindfold: Torture and Sociality in Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden
- Author : Chasqui
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 89 KB
Description
The defining trait of the blindfold lies on its power to generate individualized darkness. It is an artifact that isolates the ones using it from the light that surrounds them, thus creating an artificial and temporary blindness. The main consequence of this feature is the emergence of an asymmetry between those who are and those who are not blindfolded while sharing the same space. The blindfolded individual is seen but cannot see. Further, he or she is looked at in the act of not seeing, arrested in unsuccessful attempts to replace the now useless eyes with the ears or with touch. It suffices to conjure up the image of a group playing blind man's bluff, a scene frequently depicted in art by painters as disparate as Dirk van der Lisse, Francisco de Goya or Jean-Honore Fragonard, to illustrate the predicament of someone with covered eyes. The person advances slowly, with outstretched arras and with ears attuned to every sound, while the others laugh, tease, and mimic her or him, until their own turn to be blindfolded arrives. The inequality engendered by the use of the blindfold on some amongst various other people in the same space leads to a demeaning of those who cannot see. The latter are regarded as objects, devoid of the possibility of asserting their subjectivity by reciprocating the gaze. The uneven power relation that is put in place by the covering of the eyes turned the blindfold into a tool that has been widely used by dictatorial political systems, where torture is frequently practiced as a means of repression. The blindfold or its extension, namely the hood, are often employed as a palpable sign of the debasement of prisoners, who are thereby prevented from looking at and identifying the ones causing them pain.