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Wątki artystyczne w fotografii histerii Jean-Martina Charcota

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Rowińska A.

Amor Fati

2016

issue 1(5)

187-217

Hysteria, although diagnosed since antiquity, was a disease characteristic for the fin de siècle, and was a phenomenon situated between art and psychiatry. It has been described and documented, among others, by the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Charcot's research resulted in a number of medical publications, as well as a fascinating photo archive, which shows the different stages and views of a hysterical attack. In his book “Invention de l'Hysterie: Charcot et l'iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière” Georges Didi-Huberman wrote that he is almost forced to consider hysteria, to the extent in which it occurred in Salpêtrière in the last third of the nineteenth century, as a chapter in the history of art. I argue that the pictures of hysteria commissioned by Charcot in the Salpêtrière hospital are also a chapter in the history of photography, narrativity, and most importantly – art, and they are not only medical archives with no artistic features. The advent of photography was crucial for the existence of a particular understanding of diseases. In the text I deal with such issues and I answer the question whether the analysis process of the images commissioned by Charcot is an attempt to transform them into the work of art or they were works of art from the outset. I also analyse whether this is only a photographic documentation of piece of art, which was the hysteria. Using the terminology of François Soulages, we should consider what do Charcot's photos actually "want" to be, what constitutes them as works of art or as part of art history. What assumptions lie at the origins of their occurrence and what are the consequences resulting from the clash of these assumptions with the topic of the medium, media, cultural-historical context and audience.

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1 Amor Fati

1 Rowińska A.

1 2016

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Wątki artystyczne w fotografii histerii Jean-Martina Charcota