＂The Body in Pain＂: An Interview with Elaine Scarry

In this interview, Elaine Scarry, Harvard English professor and author of ”The Body in Pain”, discusses a variety of topics, which are connected by the idea that accurate and ethical communication relies on direct and intimate human contact. Scarry's concern for the human body is made evident as she comments on the difficulty of expressing and understanding pain; specifically she explores the politics of pain in the contemporary context of the War on Terror and torture. She argues that national defense can only be effective when individuals are personally and physically involved, drawing on examples from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. She ends by making a correlation between beauty and justice and emphasizes the responsibility of the university to foster an understanding of that correlation through inter-disciplinary teaching and study.