The Body Embarrassed Contributor(s): Paster, Gail Kern (Author) |
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ISBN: 0801480604 ISBN-13: 9780801480607 Publisher: Cornell University Press OUR PRICE: $37.57 Product Type: Paperback Published: April 1993 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Drama | European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | Drama |
Dewey: 822.309 |
LCCN: 92-36855 |
Lexile Measure: 1550 |
Physical Information: 0.77" H x 6.08" W x 9.02" (1.00 lbs) 312 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Men and women in early modern Europe experienced their bodies very differently from the ways in which contemporary men and women do. In this challenging and innovative book, Gail Kern Paster Focusing on specific bodily functions and on changes in the forms of embarrassment associated with them, Paster extends the insights of such critics and theorists as Mikhail Bakhtin, Norbert Elias, and Thomas Laqueur. She first surveys comic depictions of incontinent women as leaky vessels requiring patriarchal management and then considers the relation between medical bloodletting practices and the gender implications of blood symbolism. Next she relates the practice of purging to the theme of shame and assays ideas about pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing in medical and other nonliterary texts. Paster then turns to the use of reproductive processes in the plot structures of key Shakespeare plays and in Dekker's, Ford's, and Rowley's Witch of Edmonton. Including twelve vivid illustrations, The Body Embarrassed will be fascinating reading for students and scholars in the fields of Renaissance studies, gender studies, literary theory, the history of drama, and |
Contributor Bio(s): Paster, Gail Kern: - Gail Kern Paster is Professor of English at The George Washington University. |