Fat

A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life

By: Christopher E. Forth

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Hardcover | 11 March 2019

At a Glance

Hardcover
352 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24 x 16.3 x 2.9

Hardcover

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Fat. Such a little word evokes big responses. While 'fat' describes the size and shape of bodies — their appearance — our negative reactions to corpulence also depend on something tangible and tactile. As this book argues, there is more to fat than meets the eye.

Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life offers reflections on how fat has been perceived and imagined in the West since antiquity. Featuring fascinating historical accounts as well as philosophical, religious, and cultural analyses — including discussions of status, gender, and race — the book digs deep into the past for the roots of our current notions and prejudices.

Two central themes emerge: how we have perceived and imagined corpulent bodies over the centuries, and how fat — as a substance as well as a description of body size — has been associated with vitality and fertility as well as perceptions of animality. By exploring the complex ways in which fat, fatness, and fattening have been perceived over time, this book provides rich insights into the stuff our stereotypes are made of.

About the Author

Christopher E. Forth is the Dean Professor of Humanities and professor of history at the University of Kansas. He is the author of several books, including The Dreyfus Affair and the Crisis of French Manhood and Masculinity in the Modern West.

Industry Reviews

"Fat is the definitive overview of what bodily excess means and has meant in Western society. . . . Forth's dramatic account of how we got to this point, written with grace and a touch of irony, points out that no other bodily state, not sexual orientation, not addiction, not mental illness, remains so totally demonized as the world of the XXXXL. A vital and critical addition to the cultural history of the body by a master of the genre."--Sander Gilman, author of "Fat: The Biography"

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