Approaching Facial Difference
Past and Present
Patricia Skinner editor Emily Cock editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:3rd May '18
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
An interdisciplinary analysis of facial difference and disfigurement from antiquity to contemporary times.
What is a face and how does it relate to personhood? Approaching Facial Difference: Past and Present offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the many ways in which faces have been represented in the past and present, focusing on the issue of facial difference and disfigurement read in the light of shifting ideas of beauty and ugliness. Faces are central to all human social interactions, yet their study has been much overlooked by disability scholars and historians of medicine alike. By examining the main linguistic, visual and material approaches to the face from antiquity to contemporary times, contributors place facial diversity at the heart of our historical and cultural narratives. This cutting-edge collection of essays will be an invaluable resource for humanities scholars working across history, literature and visual culture, as well as modern practitioners in education and psychology.
This extraordinary collection of essays reveals the ways in which the intersections of gender, cultural notions of beauty and wholeness, and physical difference articulate how people in the West respond to human faces. By explicating the relationship between facial difference and notions of moral soundness, disease, and anxiety—and its apparent continuity throughout the whole of European history—the editors and contributors challenge readers and researchers to re-evaluate modern-day assumptions about beauty and difference based upon their presentation of the past. * Linda E. Mitchell, Professor of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA *
This engaging multi-disciplinary study encourages us to ‘look’ at the face and its multiple facets from a variety of points of view. It is a much-needed first step in gaining a better, more holistic understanding of the face and its perceptions throughout time. * Marjorie Gehrhardt, Lecturer in French History, University of Reading, UK *
ISBN: 9781350028296
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 531g
264 pages