Date of Publication: 2008-04-01

The nine essays in this collection touch on a variety of topics of interest to both scholars and students of the body, ranging from contested issues within the discourse on fat and anorexia, to tattoos, domestic violence campaigns, mastectomy, neurasthenia, and gendered identity.

By drawing on the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines within the social sciences and humanities, this collection provides models of how different disciplines approach the body. By incorporating perspectives from new and emerging fields like New Historicism, as well as Queer Theory, Fat, and Disability Studies, it simultaneously demonstrates how the use of a body perspective can expand and enliven understanding within these disciplines, and thus should be of interest to a wide variety of readers.

Lori Duin Kelly is Mary Robertson Williams Chair in the Department of English at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she teaches American Literature and courses in Race and Gender. Her work, which explores the intersection of Victorian medical texts and gender issues, has appeared in Notes on Contemporary Literature, Conradiana, Southern Studies, Academic Medicine, and Studies in Popular Culture. She currently chairs the Body and Physical Difference area of the Popular Culture Association.

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)