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The Metamorphoses of Fat : A History of Obesity / Georges Vigarello.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural CriticismPublisher: New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (296 p.) : 25Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780231159760
  • 9780231535304
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 362.196398009 23
LOC classification:
  • RC628
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part 1. The Medieval Glutton -- 1. The Prestige of the Big Person -- 2. Liquids, Fat, and Wind -- 3. The Horizon of Fault -- 4. The Fifteenth Century and the Contrasts of Slimming -- Part 2. The "Modern" Oaf -- 5. The Shores of Laziness -- 6. The Plural of Fat -- 7. Exploring Images, Defining Terms -- 8. Constraining the Flesh -- Part 3. From Oafishness to Powerlessness -- 9. Inventing Nuance -- 10. Stigmatizing Powerlessness -- 11. Toning Up -- Part 4. The Bourgeois Belly -- 12. The Weight of Figures -- 13. Typology Fever -- 14. From Chemistry to Energy -- 15. From Energy to Diets -- Part 5. Toward the "Martyr" -- 16. The Dominance of Aesthetics -- 17. Clinical Obesity and Everyday Obesity -- 18. The Thin Revolution -- 19. Declaring "the Martyr" -- Part 6. Changes in the Contemporary Debate -- The Affirmation of an "Epidemic" -- "Counterattacks"? -- The Dynamics of Thinness, the Dynamics of Obesity -- The Effects of Thinness -- A "Multifactor" Universe -- The Self, the Trial, and Identity -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index -- Backmatter
Summary: Georges Vigarello maps the evolution of Western ideas about fat and fat people from the Middle Ages to the present, paying particular attention to the role of science, fashion, fitness crazes, and public health campaigns in shaping these views. While hefty bodies were once a sign of power, today those who struggle to lose weight are considered poor in character and weak in mind. Vigarello traces the eventual equation of fatness with infirmity and the way we have come to define ourselves and others in terms of body type. Vigarello begins with the medieval artists and intellectuals who treated heavy bodies as symbols of force and prosperity. He then follows the shift during the Renaissance and early modern period to courtly, medical, and religious codes that increasingly favored moderation and discouraged excess. Scientific advances in the eighteenth century also brought greater knowledge of food and the body's processes, recasting fatness as the "relaxed" antithesis of health. The body-as-mechanism metaphor intensified in the early nineteenth century, with the chemistry revolution and heightened attention to food-as-fuel, which turned the body into a kind of furnace or engine. During this period, social attitudes toward fat became conflicted, with the bourgeois male belly operating as a sign of prestige but also as a symbol of greed and exploitation, while the overweight female was admired only if she was working class. Vigarello concludes with the fitness and body-conscious movements of the twentieth century and the proliferation of personal confessions about obesity, which tied fat more closely to notions of personality, politics, taste, and class.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780231535304

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part 1. The Medieval Glutton -- 1. The Prestige of the Big Person -- 2. Liquids, Fat, and Wind -- 3. The Horizon of Fault -- 4. The Fifteenth Century and the Contrasts of Slimming -- Part 2. The "Modern" Oaf -- 5. The Shores of Laziness -- 6. The Plural of Fat -- 7. Exploring Images, Defining Terms -- 8. Constraining the Flesh -- Part 3. From Oafishness to Powerlessness -- 9. Inventing Nuance -- 10. Stigmatizing Powerlessness -- 11. Toning Up -- Part 4. The Bourgeois Belly -- 12. The Weight of Figures -- 13. Typology Fever -- 14. From Chemistry to Energy -- 15. From Energy to Diets -- Part 5. Toward the "Martyr" -- 16. The Dominance of Aesthetics -- 17. Clinical Obesity and Everyday Obesity -- 18. The Thin Revolution -- 19. Declaring "the Martyr" -- Part 6. Changes in the Contemporary Debate -- The Affirmation of an "Epidemic" -- "Counterattacks"? -- The Dynamics of Thinness, the Dynamics of Obesity -- The Effects of Thinness -- A "Multifactor" Universe -- The Self, the Trial, and Identity -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index -- Backmatter

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Georges Vigarello maps the evolution of Western ideas about fat and fat people from the Middle Ages to the present, paying particular attention to the role of science, fashion, fitness crazes, and public health campaigns in shaping these views. While hefty bodies were once a sign of power, today those who struggle to lose weight are considered poor in character and weak in mind. Vigarello traces the eventual equation of fatness with infirmity and the way we have come to define ourselves and others in terms of body type. Vigarello begins with the medieval artists and intellectuals who treated heavy bodies as symbols of force and prosperity. He then follows the shift during the Renaissance and early modern period to courtly, medical, and religious codes that increasingly favored moderation and discouraged excess. Scientific advances in the eighteenth century also brought greater knowledge of food and the body's processes, recasting fatness as the "relaxed" antithesis of health. The body-as-mechanism metaphor intensified in the early nineteenth century, with the chemistry revolution and heightened attention to food-as-fuel, which turned the body into a kind of furnace or engine. During this period, social attitudes toward fat became conflicted, with the bourgeois male belly operating as a sign of prestige but also as a symbol of greed and exploitation, while the overweight female was admired only if she was working class. Vigarello concludes with the fitness and body-conscious movements of the twentieth century and the proliferation of personal confessions about obesity, which tied fat more closely to notions of personality, politics, taste, and class.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)