Theatres of surgery: The cultural pre-history of the face transplant

Abstract

The first facial transplant, using a donor’s nose, chin and mouth, was performed on Isabelle Dinoire in France in 2005, but the idea of removing or replacing the face – either with a mask, or with a living face – has been around for much longer. This article explores the cultural pre-history of face transplantation: its speculative existence in legend, literature and film before it became a medical possibility at the beginning of the twenty-first century. One of the questions posed here is: how (and for what purpose) do medical ‘firsts’ like Dinoire’s surgery acquire a history? The article begins by considering the uses of the past by transplant surgeons themselves, and by those who are concerned about the ethical or psychological implications of organ and face transplantation. Having considered these different investments in the past – one emphasising medical progress, the other highlighting enduring anxieties about medical experimentation – we turn to the first cinematic portrayal of face transplantation, in Georges Franju’s horror classic Les Yeux sans Visage ( Eyes Without a Face, 1959). An exploration of Franju’s sources suggests a more complicated relationship between medical innovations and their cultural contexts and highlights the changing significance of the face as a site of medical and aesthetic intervention.

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“…Notoriously, at the film’s premiere, members of the audience fainted after a face removal scene. [ 22 ] In terms of the realism of this film, although some details of the surgery and transplant rejection are not too far from reality, especially given the mid-century understanding of transplantation, the film was way ahead of its time and face transplantation only became a medical reality in 2005.…”

“…[ 12 , 13 ] Other topics include assisted suicide, [ 14 ] locked-in syndrome [ 15 ] and coma, [ 16 ] cancer [ 17 ] and childhood cancer, [ 18 ] anti-bacterial usage, [ 19 ] immunization, [ 20 ] movement disorders, [ 21 ] and face transplantation. [ 22 ] In terms of healthcare workers, studies have looked at the representation of pharmacists, [ 23 ] doctors, [ 24 – 26 ], and neurosurgeons. [ 27 ].…”