Embodying the Monster by Margrit Shildrick

Embodying the Monster by Margrit Shildrick

Written by one of the most distinguished commentators in the field, this book asks why we see some bodies as ′monstrous′ or ′vulnerable′ and examines what this tells us about ideas of bodily ′normality′ and bodily perfection. Drawing on feminist theories of the body, biomedical discourse and historical data, Margrit Shildrick argues that the response to the monstrous body has always been ambivalent. In trying to organize it out of the discourses of normality, we point to the impossibility of realizing a fully developed, invulnerable self. She calls upon us to rethink the monstrous, not as an abnormal category, but as a condition of attractivenes, and demonstrates how this involves an exploration of relationships between bodies and embodied selves, and a revising of the phenomenology of the body.

`Shildrick′s study stands out among postmodern analyses of the body by refusing to abandon the fleshiness of cultural lifeThe scope of this book is impressive and its analysis of "monstrous corporeality" and "vulnerability" as an inalienable counterpart of what it is to be human culminates in a posthumanis ethics of and for the body that will be the subject of debate among body theorists, feminists and cultural analysts′ - Chris Shilling, University of Portsmouth

"Excellent text; informative endnotes. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through professionals."

-- CHOICE

My long term research interests have focused on the body and particularly on the notion of the anomalous body, whether that relates to sex and gender, to disability, to ageing, or to cyborgs. At present I am working on an international project exploring the phenomenology of heart transplant recipients. My approach has always been broadly postmodernist - or at least poststructuralist - and strongly influenced by the ongoing development of feminist theory and of postconventional bioethics. For many years I have done collaborative work on disability, and the area of Critical Disability Studies has more recently become a sharper focus of research. I have recently finished a new book (Dangerous Discourses) which brings together many of my existing interests as well as extending them into legal theory, queer theory and even psychoanalysis. I hope that any students (or intending students) pursuing dissertations or theses in any of those fields will get in contact.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780761970149
ISBN 10	0761970142
Title	Embodying the Monster
Author	Margrit Shildrick
Series	Published In Association With Theory Culture And Society
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	SAGE Publications Inc
Year published	2001-11-01
Number of pages	154
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable