Ways of Seeing: Staring at and Representing Disfigurement
Patricia Skinner
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s groundbreaking work on staring is used to frame this chapter, where Byzantine texts are introduce the idea of “textual staring”—accounts so detailed and emotive that they go beyond simple reporting. Far from being person controlling transaction, starer in fact disempowered by their curiosity over unexpected appearance stared at. Iconographic sources also explored, although early medieval disregard for physical body, influenced Church doctrine, means no portrayal a disfigured face can be found period. Other forms staring, including use mirrors, then considered.