Following the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, copious images and witness accounts of the event depicted gruesome, violent imagery of corporeal harm and dismemberment, of flesh, blood and body parts. Over time, however, initial emphases on gore were replaced by particularized attention to survivors, with the rehabilitation of their injured bodies – and their personal lives – as the focus. Throughout this paper, I question how, as particular affects wane and others emerge, space opens up for the re-integration of survivors and the re-production of ‘normal’ subjects.
My research moves from the initial moments of explosion to the rehabilitation and re-absorption of previously ‘disgusting’ injured bodies and body parts. I use textual analysis to engage with audio video clips and articles covering the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the rehabilitation of survivors. Drawing from theories of compulsory able-bodiedness and somatechnics, I analyze the ways in which survivor narratives presented by and through these texts serve as a locus for not only the rehabilitation of the individual but the recuperation of the nation. I suggest that the affective space afforded through pride allows for the exceptionalized re-absorption of survivors, while also re-producing heteronormative able-bodiedness and notions of the ‘normal’ national subject.
About the presenterAshley Patricia Ferrell
A.P. Ferrell’s research interests include the corporeality of affect, the ways in which emotions are fostered and channeled through modes of communication, and how affective flows come to re-articulate the bodies and being of ‘normal’ subjects and national borders. Ferrell holds an M.A. in Gender Studies from Central European University and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington. She has a background in nonprofit development and consulting.