Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England - Altered Bodies and Contexts of Identity

This pioneering account offers a new perspective on debates concerning embodiment in the early modern period, examining the varied experiences of those who underwent surgical alteration as a starting point for discussing questions of personal integrity, morality, and resurrection. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

List of contents

1. The Instrumental Body: Castrati; 2. Invisible Women: Altered Female Bodies; 3. Second-hand Faces: Aesthetic Surgery; 4. Acting the Part: Prosthetic Limbs; 5. 'Recompact My Scattered Parts': The Altered Body after Death; 6. Phantom Limbs and the Hard Problem.

About the author

Alanna Skuse is the Wellcome Trust Research Fellow for the Department of English at the University of Reading. She was previously the Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Reading and long-term research fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Institute, Washington DC, and is also the author of Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England: Ravenous Natures (2015).

Summary

This pioneering account offers a new perspective on debates concerning embodiment in the early modern period, examining the varied experiences of those who underwent surgical alteration as a starting point for discussing questions of personal integrity, morality, and resurrection. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Product details

• Authors: Alanna Skuse, Alanna (University of Reading) Skuse, Skuse Alanna
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2021
• EAN: 9781108843614
• ISBN: 978-1-108-84361-4
• No. of pages: 220
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; History, HISTORY / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, c 1500 onwards to present day, Archaeology, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literature: history & criticism, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, History and Archaeology, Literature: history and criticism, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards, Literary studies: poetry and poets, Literary studies: plays and playwrights