Bodies in horrifying hurt/comfort fan fiction: Paying the toll

Abstract

Hurt/comfort (h/c) fan fiction revels in the malleability of the flesh (changing it, destroying it, manipulating it to new purpose), and some find this fascination baffling and worrisome. At its most extreme, hurt/comfort focuses on the body in pain because it assumes that the destroyed body adds immense value to the narrative. Through the ideas of Elaine Scarry and Julia Kristeva, I move the conversation beyond h/c's uneasy readership and toward the ways pain functions when it takes center stage.