Embodying the Monster
Encounters with the Vulnerable Self
1st Edition
Published on 1. November 2001
162 pages
978-1-4462-3635-2 (ISBN)
Description
Written by one of the most distinguished commentators in the field, this book asks why we see some bodies as 'monstrous' or 'vulnerable' and examines what this tells us about ideas of bodily 'normality' and bodily perfection.
Drawing on feminist theories of the body, biomedical discourse and historical data, Margrit Shildrick argues that the response to the monstrous body has always been ambivalent. In trying to organize it out of the discourses of normality, we point to the impossibility of realizing a fully developed, invulnerable self. She calls upon us to rethink the monstrous, not as an abnormal category, but as a condition of attractivenes, and demonstrates how this involves an exploration of relationships between bodies and embodied selves, and a revising of the phenomenology of the body.
Drawing on feminist theories of the body, biomedical discourse and historical data, Margrit Shildrick argues that the response to the monstrous body has always been ambivalent. In trying to organize it out of the discourses of normality, we point to the impossibility of realizing a fully developed, invulnerable self. She calls upon us to rethink the monstrous, not as an abnormal category, but as a condition of attractivenes, and demonstrates how this involves an exploration of relationships between bodies and embodied selves, and a revising of the phenomenology of the body.
Reviews / Votes
`Shildrick's study stands out among postmodern analyses of the body by refusing to abandon the fleshiness of cultural life. The scope of this book is impressive and its analysis of "monstrous corporeality" and "vulnerability" as an inalienable counterpart of what it is to be human culminates in a posthumanis ethics of and for the body that will be the subject of debate among body theorists, feminists and cultural analysts' - Chris Shilling, University of Portsmouth "Excellent text; informative endnotes. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through professionals." -- CHOICEMore details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-4462-3635-2 (9781446236352)
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
Book
11/2001
1st Edition
SAGE Publications Inc
€271.30
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
11/2001
1st Edition
SAGE Publications Inc
€75.08
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
My long term research interests have focused on the body and particularly on the notion of the anomalous body, whether that relates to sex and gender, to disability, to ageing, or to cyborgs. At present I am working on an international project exploring the phenomenology of heart transplant recipients. My approach has always been broadly postmodernist - or at least poststructuralist - and strongly influenced by the ongoing development of feminist theory and of postconventional bioethics. For many years I have done collaborative work on disability, and the area of Critical Disability Studies has more recently become a sharper focus of research. I have recently finished a new book (Dangerous Discourses) which brings together many of my existing interests as well as extending them into legal theory, queer theory and even psychoanalysis. I hope that any students (or intending students) pursuing dissertations or theses in any of those fields will get in contact.
Content
Introduction
Monsters, Marvels and Meanings
Monstering the (M)Other
The Self's Clean and Proper Body
Contagious Encounters and the Ethics of Risk
Levinas and Vulnerable Becoming
The Relational Economy of Touch
Welcoming the Monstrous Arrivant
Monsters, Marvels and Meanings
Monstering the (M)Other
The Self's Clean and Proper Body
Contagious Encounters and the Ethics of Risk
Levinas and Vulnerable Becoming
The Relational Economy of Touch
Welcoming the Monstrous Arrivant
