Research Catalog
Fat : a cultural history of the stuff of life
- Title
- Fat : a cultural history of the stuff of life / Christopher E. Forth.
- Author
- Forth, Christopher E.
- Publication
- London, UK : Reaktion Books Ltd, 2019.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 19-11390 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- 358 pages : illustrations, portraits; 24 cm
- Summary
- Fat. Such a little word evokes big responses. While "fat" describes the size and shape of bodies -- their appearance -- our negative reactions to corpulence also depend on something tangible and tactile. As this book argues, there is more to fat than meets the eye. Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life offers reflections on how fat has been perceived and imagined in the West since antiquity. Featuring fascinating historical accounts as well as philosophical, religious, and cultural analyses -- including discussions of status, gender, and race -- the book digs deep into the past for the roots of our current notions and prejudices. Two central themes emerge: how we have perceived and imagined corpulent bodies over the centuries, and how fat -- as a substance as well as a description of body size -- has been associated with vitality and fertility as well as perceptions of animality. By exploring the complex ways in which fat, fatness, and fattening have been perceived over time, this book provides rich insights into the stuff our stereotypes are made of.
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- One. The Stuff of Life: Thinking and Doing with Fat -- Two. Fertile Ambiguities: The Agricultural Imagination -- Three. Ancient Appetites: Luxury and the Geography of Softness -- Four. Christian Corpulence: The Belly and What Lies Beneath -- Five. Noble Fat? Corpulence in the Middle Ages -- Six. The Fat of the Land; or, Why a Good Cock is Never Fat -- Seven. Spartan Mirages: Utopian Bodies and the Challenges of Modernity -- Eight. Grease and Grace: The Disenchantment of Fat? -- Nine. Savage Desires: 'Primitive' Fat and 'Civilized' Slenderness -- Ten. Bodily Utopianism: Modern Dreams of Transcendence.
- Call Number
- JFE 19-11390
- ISBN
- 9781789140620
- 1789140625
- OCLC
- 1041803699
- Author
- Forth, Christopher E., author.
- Title
- Fat : a cultural history of the stuff of life / Christopher E. Forth.
- Publisher
- London, UK : Reaktion Books Ltd, 2019.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Note
- AUTH: UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.
- Research Call Number
- JFE 19-11390