Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life

Description

Fat: such a little word evokes big responses. While ‘fat’ describes the size and shape of bodies, our negative reactions to corpulent bodies 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 a historical reflection on how fat has been perceived and imagined in the West since antiquity. Featuring fascinating historical accounts, philosophical, religious and cultural arguments, including discussions of status, gender and race, the book digs deep into the past for the roots of our current notions and prejudices. Three central themes emerge: how we have perceived and imagined obesity over the centuries; how fat as a substance has elicited disgust and how it evokes perceptions of animality; but also how it has been associated with vitality and fertility. 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. About the Author CHRISTOPHER E. FORTH is the Dean's Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at the University of Kansas. His books include  Zarathustra in Paris (2001),  The Dreyfus Affair and the Crisis of French Manhood (2004),  Masculinity in the Modern West (2008), and  Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life (2019). Cover Title Page Imprint Page Contents Introduction: Life in the Wrong Place 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 Conclusion: Purity, Lightness and the Weight of History References Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index