Consumptive Chic - A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease

Zusatztext Beautifully illustrated! Consumptive Chic weaves together the histories of fashion and medicine to chart the symbolic import of the female tubercular body. Day mobilizes an impressive range of primary materials to illuminate the rise of consumption as a fashionable malady! in spite of - or perhaps owing to - its devastating effects. Informationen zum Autor Carolyn A. Day is Assistant Professor at Furman University where she teaches British History and the History of Medicine. She received a BA in History and a BSc in Microbiology from Louisiana State University, US, an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, UK, and a PhD from Tulane University, US, in British history. Klappentext During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular 'moment' in which perceptions of the consumptive disease became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty. Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women's clothing, and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the intimate relationship between the body, beauty, and disease - and the rise of 'tubercular chic'.A uniquely interdisciplinary exploration of the intimate relationship between fashionable women’s clothing, beauty, and disease and the rise of tubercular chic. Zusammenfassung During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular ‘moment’ in which perceptions of the consumptive disease became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty. Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women’s clothing, and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the intimate relationship between the body, beauty, and disease - and the rise of ‘tubercular chic’. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction 1. The Approach to Illness2. The Curious Case of Consumption: A Family Affair 3. Exciting Consumption: The Causes and Culture of an Illness4. Morality, Mortality, and Romanticizing Death 5. The Angel of Death in the Household6. Tragedy and Tuberculosis: The Siddons Story7. Dying to Be Beautiful: The Consumptive Chic8. The Agony of Conceit: Clothing and ConsumptionEpilogue: The End of Consumptive ChicConclusionBibliographyIndex...

Product details

• Authors: Carolyn A Day, Carolyn A. Day
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.03.2020
• EAN: 9781350141186
• ISBN: 978-1-350-14118-6
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 188 mm x 246 mm x 16 mm
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Interior design, design