The pain of others and its expression in drama: phenomenology and performance

The purpose of the following article is to elucidate certain aspects of the intersubjective dynamics of the expression and recognition of the pain of others. To this end, recourse has been made to the artistic notion of embodiment, present in the modern theatrical tradition of psychological realism, as opposed to its contemporary reinterpretation in action art or performance. While, in the first case, the embodiment of pain in drama has to do with the embodiment of a character who is suffering, which implies a process of disembodiment, the performance art embodiment of pain can be defmed, on the other hand, as a process of embodying vulnerability. From the description and contrast of both dramatic approaches interesting considerations arise about possible mismatches or disconnections in the intersubjective circuit of pain, as well as an understanding of the rhetoric of pain as a communication strategy in the hipertechnological society.