The Cambridge Companion to the Body in Literature

Description

This Companion offers the first systematic analysis of the representation of the body in literature. It historicizes embodiment by charting our evolving understanding of the body from the Middle Ages to the present day, and addresses such questions as sensory perception, technology, language and affect; maternal bodies, disability and the representation of ageing; eating and obesity, pain, death and dying; and racialized and posthuman bodies. This Companion also considers science and its construction of the body through disciplines such as obstetrics, sexology and neurology. Leading scholars in the field devote special attention to poetry, prose, drama and film, and chart a variety of theoretical understandings of the body.

David Hillman is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of Studies at King's College, Cambridge. He is the author of Shakespeare's Entrails: Belief, Scepticism and the Interior of the Body and Marx and Freud. He is the co-editor of The Body in Parts: Fantasies of Corporeality in Early Modern Europe and of The Book of Interruptions. He is currently working on a monograph, Greetings and Partings in Shakespeare and Early Modern England. Ulrika Maude is a Senior Lecturer in Modernism and Twentieth-Century Literature at the University of Bristol. She is the author of Beckett, Technology and the Body (Cambridge, 2009), and co-editor of The Body and the Arts and Beckett and Phenomenology. She has recently co-edited Beckett, Medicine and the Brain, a special issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities (2015). Maude is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Beckett Studies and has contributed to such journals as Modernism/Modernity and European Joyce Studies.

'The volume's scope is broad and aims for a wide readership, students and scholars alike, who are interested in how literature has dealt with body images during different times and paradigms.' Markus Hallensleben, Breac: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies '[The Cambridge Companion to the Body in Literature] is a worthy addition to the already-rich series of the Cambridge Companions to Literature. Although, the focus of this work is clearly on literature, this collection has huge potential. It is likely to be appreciated by people working in the medical humanities, as well as medical education. Linguists, social scientists and students of religion and history are also likely to benefit from it. All the contributions are clear, concise and yet very informative and, among other things, will be of great help to anyone wishing to be au fait with the latest literature in this expanding field. Well done to Cambridge University Press for commissioning such a work, and to the editor and contributors for an excellent book.' Simone Bacchini, Reference Review