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Description for Skin
Shows how our perception of skin has changed from the eighteenth century onwards. This title examines the changing significance of skin through brilliant analyses of literature, art, philosophy, and anatomical drawings and writings. Translator(s): Dunlop, Thomas; Dunlap, Thomas. Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism. Num Pages: 256 pages, 41 illus. BIC Classification: JFC. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 237 x 160 x 19. Weight in Grams: 544.
"Only skin deep," "getting under one's skin," "the naked truth": metaphors about the skin pervade the language even as physical embellishments and alterations-tattoos, piercings, skin-lifts, liposuction, tanning, and more-proliferate in Western culture. Yet outside dermatology textbooks, the topic of skin has been largely ignored. This important cultural study shows how our perception of skin has changed from the eighteenth century to the present. Claudia Benthien argues that despite medicine's having penetrated the bodily surface and exposed the interior of the body as never before, skin, paradoxically, has become a more and more unyielding symbol. She examines the changing significance ... Read more
"Only skin deep," "getting under one's skin," "the naked truth": metaphors about the skin pervade the language even as physical embellishments and alterations-tattoos, piercings, skin-lifts, liposuction, tanning, and more-proliferate in Western culture. Yet outside dermatology textbooks, the topic of skin has been largely ignored. This important cultural study shows how our perception of skin has changed from the eighteenth century to the present. Claudia Benthien argues that despite medicine's having penetrated the bodily surface and exposed the interior of the body as never before, skin, paradoxically, has become a more and more unyielding symbol. She examines the changing significance ... Read more
Product Details
Publication date
2002
Publisher
Columbia University Press United States
Number of pages
256
Condition
New
Series
European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
Number of Pages
256
Format
Hardback
Place of Publication
New York, United States
ISBN
9780231125024
SKU
V9780231125024
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15
About Claudia Benthien
Claudia Benthien is assistant professor of German at Humboldt-University, Berlin. She received the Tiburtius Prize from the Berlin senate for this work.
Reviews for Skin
A prize-winning examination of the changing cultural and metaphorical significance of skin, through innovative readings of literature, art, philosophy, history, anthropology, medicine, and more. Library Journal [Benthien] deftly illuminates her findings, and she is quite brilliant. This is historical anthropology at its best.
Joanna Briscoe The Guardian Delves into the cultural role of skin as the place where personal ... Read more
Joanna Briscoe The Guardian Delves into the cultural role of skin as the place where personal ... Read more