A collection of nine interdisciplinary essays looking at the social and cultural construction of the human body. Focusing on extreme, transgressive situations, practices, and their representations, the contributors tackle a wide range of issues about how the body was interpreted and understood in the early modern period.
A strong preoccupation with the human body is a characteristic shared by early modern Europeans and their present-day counterparts. This volume explores manifestations of early modern bodily obsessions and fascinations, and their wider cultural significance.
