Abstract T. S. Eliot’s rarely discussed prose-poem “Hysteria” poses a riddle insofar as its title’s reference remains ambiguous: Both the male and female protagonist may be the locus of hysteria’s disturbing presence, as well as the text itself. This article tries to unravel the hysterical knot by taking recourse to psychoanalytic theory and elucidating the dichotomies manifest in “Hysteria,” in form as well as in content. The prose-poem is characterized by a divide between mind and body, male and female, symbolic and semiotic. Instead of complying with this disjunction and attributing the signs of hysteria to either side of the dichotomy, I suggest situating the origin of hysteria beyond it. Since hysteria’s characteristic is transgression and role-play, it may not be confined to one pole of a binary, to the man or the woman, body or mind, but always already transcends these binary structures. Indeed, as a social malady par excellence, I believe hysteria arises out of the void at the base of the male and female protagonist’s relationship and is thus a jointly produced and somatically encoded sign of distress.

中文翻译：

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Sprechende Körper：TS Eliots“Hysteria”中的Somatische und semiotische Spure der Hysterie

摘要 TS Eliot 很少讨论的散文诗“歇斯底里”提出了一个谜语，因为其标题的参考仍然模棱两可：男性和女性主角可能是歇斯底里令人不安的存在的地点，以及文本本身。本文试图通过求助于精神分析理论并阐明“歇斯底里”在形式和内容上表现出来的二分法来解开歇斯底里的结。散文诗的特点是心灵与身体、男性与女性、象征与符号之间的鸿沟。我建议不要遵守这种分离并将歇斯底里的迹象归因于二分法的任一侧，而是将歇斯底里的起源置于其之外。由于歇斯底里的特点是越轨和角色扮演，它可能不限于二元的一个极点，男人或女人，身体或心灵，但总是已经超越了这些二元结构。的确，作为一种卓越的社会病，我相信歇斯底里源于男女主人公关系基础上的空虚，因此是一种共同产生和身体编码的痛苦迹象。