
Body, Subject & Subjected
The Representation of the Body Itself, Illness, Injury, Treatment and Death in Spain and Indigenous and Hispanic American Art and Literature
Debra D. Andrist(Editor)
Liverpool University Press
Published on 1. January 2016
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-84519-740-7 (ISBN)
Description
Hominids have always been obsessed with representing their own bodies. The first "selfies" were prehistoric negative hand images and human stick figures, followed by stone and ceramic representations of the human figure. Thousands of years later, moving via historic art and literature to contemporary social media, the contemporary term "selfie" was self-generated. The book illuminates some "selfies". This collection of critical essays about the fixation on the human self addresses a multi-faceted geographic set of cultures -- the Iberian Peninsula to pre-Columbian America and Hispanic America -- analysing such representations from medical, literal and metaphorical perspectives over centuries. Chapter contributions address the representation of the body itself as subject, in both visual and textual manners, and illuminate attempts at control of the environment, of perception, of behaviour and of actions, by artists and authors. Other chapters address the body as subjected to circumstance, representing the body as affected by factors such as illness, injury, treatment and death. These myriad effects on the body are interpreted through the brushes of painters and the pens of authors for social and/or personal control purposes. The essays reveal critics' insights when "selfies" are examined through a focused "lens" over a breadth of cultures. The result, complex and unique, is that what is viewed -- the visual art and literature under discussion -- becomes a mirror image, indistinguishable from the component viewing apparatus, the "lens".
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
illus
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
518 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84519-740-7 (9781845197407)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Debra D. Andrist
Body, Subject & Subjected
The Representation of the Body Itself, Illness, Injury, Treatment & Death in Spain and Indigenous and Hispanic American Art & Literature
E-Book
02/2016
Sussex Academic Press
€67.99
Available for download
Person
The Editor, Dr. Debra D. Andrist, retired Professor of Spanish/formerly founding Chair of Foreign Languages (at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX) was formerly Chair/Cullen Professor at University of St. Thomas/Houston and formerly Associate Professor at Baylor University, Waco, TX . Her scholarly work focuses on art and literature by and about women and medical topics.