The Stories Bodies Tell

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” a heart lies thumping under the floorboards, driving the narrator from his senses. The body betrays, the ears hear what the mind denies. In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian tries to escape having the consequences of his actions inscribed on his own body by trapping his soul in a painting, so that he himself will never grow ugly or old. But he can’t stop looking at the sickly-looking portrait. Body obsession becomes the downfall of the evil queen in Snow White as well, just as it does for Narcissus; a mirror is a dangerous place to live. The Stories Bodies Tell is an inclusive interdisciplinary symposium exploring the many and diverse ways bodies tell and reveal their stories, with or without intention.

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