This Mortal Coil

The Human Body in History and Culture

Fay Bound Alberti

The cultural story of the human body - from earliest times to the twenty-first century
Reveals just how modern the 'modern body' really is
Demolishes the idea of the body as an unchanging constant in a changing world
Shows how the way we move, feel, breathe, and engage with the world has differed radically over time - and between cultures
Takes the body apart to put it back anew, telling the cultural history of our key organs and systems from the inside out, from blood to guts, brains to sex organs

This Mortal Coil

The Human Body in History and Culture

Fay Bound Alberti

Description

To many people the idea that 'the body' has its own history might sound faintly ridiculous. The body and its experiences are usually seen as something that we share with people from the past. Like 'human nature', it represents the unchanging in a changing world. Bodies just are...

But the body does have a history. The way that it moves, feels, breathes, and engages with the world has been viewed very differently across times and cultures. For centuries, 'we' were believed to be composed of souls that were part of the body and inseparable from it. Now we exist in our heads, and our bodies have become the vessels for that uncertain and elusive thing we call our 'true selves'. The way we understand the material structure of the body has also changed radically over the centuries. From the bones to the skin, from the senses to the organs of sexual reproduction, every part of the body has an ever-changing history, dependent on time, culture, and place.

This Mortal Coil is an exploration of that history. Peeling away our assumptions about the unchanging nature of the human body, Fay Bound Alberti takes it apart in order to put it back anew, telling the cultural history of our key organs and systems from the inside out, from blood to guts, brains to sex organs. The understanding of the 'modern body' she reveals in the process is far removed from the 'eternal' or timeless object of common assumption. In fact, she argues, its roots go back no further than the sixteenth century at the earliest - and it has only truly existed in its current form since the nineteenth century.

This Mortal Coil

The Human Body in History and Culture

Fay Bound Alberti

Introduction: The Body in Parts
1:Getting it Straight: Spines, Scoliosis and the Hunchback King
2:Beauty and the Breast: from Paraffin to PIP
3:'Country Matters': The Language and Politics of Female Genitalia
4:'Soft and Tender' or 'Weighed down by Grief:' The Emotional Heart
5:Mind the Brain: From 'Cold Wet Matter' to the Origin of Thought
6:From Excrement to Boundary: Rethinking Skin
7:Tongue-Tied? From Nagging Wives to a Question of Taste
8:Fat. So? Gut Knowledge and the Meanings of Obesity
Conclusion: Towards Embodiment
Further Reading
Notes
Index

This Mortal Coil

The Human Body in History and Culture

Fay Bound Alberti

Author Information

Fay Bound Alberti, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of London

Fay Bound Alberti is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in History at Queen Mary University of London, having taught previously at universities throughout the UK, including Manchester, UCL, and Lancaster. A founding member of the Centre for the History of Emotions, she has written extensively in the fields of history, medical history, and women's history, including Matters of the Heart: Locating Emotions in Medical and Cultural History (2010), also published by Oxford University Press, which was shortlisted for the Longman History Today book of the year award. She is also an experienced philanthropy advisor who has worked as Head of Philanthropy for the Arcadia foundation and Head of Medical Humanities Grants for the Wellcome Trust.

This Mortal Coil

The Human Body in History and Culture

Fay Bound Alberti

Reviews and Awards

"This book is a good place to start thinking anew about reinvigorating debates deconstructing mindbody dualism." - Joanna Bourke, Journal of Medical History

"Engrossing and provocative... leaves readers eager for more." - Erin Sullivan, The Lancet

"Slight in weight ..., but not in intellectual breadth. Alberti gives us a new history of the body, primarily the female one. Crucially, she answers the 'so what' question, powerfully demonstrating why the history of the body matters." - Joanna Bourke, Books of the Year 2016, BBC History Magazine

"Moving and thought-provoking [This Mortal Coil shows] how understanding our bodies is integral to understanding ourselves." - Wendy Moore, New Statesman

"Alberti has provided a compelling history, which explores the relationship between the biological body, with its bones, skin, guts and genitals, and the language and metaphors we use to describe it, without reducing one to the other. Written accessibly, and in beautiful prose, this book will appeal to historians, social scientists, medical professionals and the general reader alike. Highly recommended." - Hazel Croft, BMJ Blogs

"Fay Bound Alberti proves again that she is an exquisite storyteller and compelling historian. This Mortal Coil is an enthralling history of our bodies." - Joanna Bourke, author of The Story of Pain.

"Bound Alberti is well known for her insightful analyses of the body... this book is a good place to start thinking anew about reinvigorating debates deconstructing mindbody dualism." - Medical History