PRODUCTION OF PRESENCE: THE SUBJECTIVITY OF THE BODY IN PAIN

Abstract

The purpose of the study is a critical analysis of the methodological limitations of hermeneutics in the study of the body in pain. The task of the study is to identify the flaws of objectification of pain within the subject/object paradigm and to provide a theoretical substantiation for the subject/subject paradigm.

Post-hermeneutic critique serves as the theoretical basis for the study. Key tools for analysis include H. U. Gumbrecht’s theoretical developments, primarily the concept of “production of presence.” Research on the processes of metaphorization and objectification of the body in pain was conducted based on S. Sontag’s essays, particularly those devoted to photography. Additional methodological orientations are provided by G. Lukács’ literary-critical theory, H. U. von Balthasar’s theological critique of reductionism, and E. Scurry’s phenomenological research.

The originality of the study lies in its articulation of the difficulties involved in hermeneutics when studying the body in pain, since hermeneutics turns it into an object of interpretation. The subject/subject paradigm has been developed theoretically – in this framework, the ability to resist is not considered a mistake, but rather an ontological quality of the subjectivity of the body in pain. Additionally, the concept of the “production of presence” was further developed as an ethical imperative that transforms the research space from a field of analytical objectification into a space of co-presence and self-unconcealment of the phenomenon under study.

The study identified that hermeneutic tools have methodological limitations when applied to the experience of physical suffering. It has been established that prioritizing interpretation and the search for “hidden meaning” leads to the objectification of the body in pain, transforming the living reality of pain into passive material for theoretical constructs. It was argued that the subject/subject paradigm helps identify the resistance to interpreting the body in pain as a manifestation of its subjectivity. The concept of the “production of presence” in this context takes on an ethical dimension, requiring the rejection of the interpreter’s position of authoritativeness in favor of co-presence. This allows the singularity of the bodily experience to be explored without dissolving it into discourse. Further research prospects are related to extrapolating the principles of the subject/subject paradigm and the ethics of co-presence to studying other forms of existential experience that resist the hermeneutic approach.