The culture of obesity in early and late modernity :
[Book]
body image in Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton /
Elena Levy-Navarro.
1st ed.
New York :
Palgrave Macmillan,
2008.
xi, 238 pages ;
22 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-225) and index.
Towards a constructionist fat history -- A time before fat? gluttony in Piers Plowman -- Emergence of fatness defiant : Skelton at court -- Lean and mean : Shakespeare's criticism of thin privilege -- Boundless fat in Middleton's A game at chess -- Weigh me as a friend : Jonson's multiple constructions of the fat body.
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"The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity offers rhe first sustained examination of fatness in rhe early modern period. As Levy-Navarro notes, bodily perceptions have evolved that value the thin body as they mark and stigmatize the fat one. Using readings of such major figures as Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton, this book considers alternative ways that fat was constructed before the introduction of the modern pathologized category of "obesity". Levy-Navarro argues that Shakespeare, Jonson, and Skelton understood that a thin aesthetic consolidates the power of the elite and chose to align themselves with their fat, lowly, and revolting characters - an alliance that offers a model of defiance with continued relevance."--BOOK JACKET.
Culture of obesity in early and late modernity.
Jonson, Ben, 1572-1637
Middleton, Christopher, 1926-2015
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Skelton, John, 1460-1529
Aesthetics, Modern-- 16th century.
Aesthetics, Modern-- 17th century.
Authors, English-- Early modern, 1500-1700-- Aesthetics.
Body image in literature.
English literature-- Early modern, 1500-1700-- History and criticism.