La douleur et ses significations

Pain and its Meanings

Friday 7 December 19.00-21.00,
Saturday 8 December 10.30-17.00
Wellcome Collection

Two days of cultural exploration and discussion

Including
   Gillian Bendelow, Joanna Bourke, Daniel Eisner Harle, Javier Moscoso,
   Deborah Padfield, Tom Shakespeare, Jo Shapcott, Marina Warner and
   Joanna Zakrzewska

Everyone has experienced bodily pain, yet describing it is notoriously difficult. Is pain really so difficult to articulate? Or can it actually generate creative expression? If so, what do these narratives tell us about the meaning of pain? Some believe it has the power to purge sin; others interpret it as an unjust punishment. Pain can even be regarded as intrinsic to achievement – 'no pain, no gain'.
This unique two-day symposium will bring together some of the liveliest and most widely respected creative and scholarly minds to probe and discuss profound questions about the relationship between body, mind and culture. How and why do we give meaning to bodily pain?

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY EVENING :
Deborah Padfield film screening;
Daniel Eisner Harle presents a new musical composition;
Jo Shapcott reads a new poem. Round-table discussion and wine.

SATURDAY :
Tom Shakespeare – Disability and its Discontents
Gillian Bendelow – Chronic Pain and the Mind-Body Problem in Health and Illness
Javier Moscoso – *History for the Losers: Pain and SocialAwareness*;* *Joanna Zakrzewska – *Pain: Friend or Foe/?/*;**Joanna Bourke – Being in Pain: Historical Reflections; Marina Warner – 'Blood in the Shoe': Cruelty, Pleasure and the Happy Ending. Round-table discussion.

*£30 full price/£25 concessions for both days, including drinks on Friday evening and lunch, tea and coffee on Saturday. To book, please call +44 (0)20 7611 2222*

More information can be found here:
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/pain-and-its-meanings.aspx

'Pain and its Meanings' is a collaboration between the Birkbeck Pain Project <http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/our-research/birkbeckpainproject%20>and Wellcome Collection.