Authors: Sander L. Gilman
ISBN-13: 9780803221833, ISBN-10: 0803221835
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: UNP - Nebraska
Date Published: March 2004
Edition: New Edition
Sander L. Gilman is Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences at Emory University and is the author of numerous books, including Jewish Frontiers: Essays on Bodies, Histories, and Identities; Smart Jews: The Construction of the Image of Jewish Superior Intelligence (Nebraska 1996); and Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity.
The fat mana cultural icon, a social enigma, a pressing medical issueis the subject of this remarkably rich book. The figures that Sander L. Gilman considers, from the ugly fat man with the beautiful sylph trapped inside to the smart fat boy to the aging body desirous of rejuvenation, appear and reappear in different guises throughout Western culture. And as is often true, such marginal cases help define the shifting center of our dreams and beliefs. An exploration into the world of male body fantasies, Gilman’s book examines how the representation of the fat man alters with time and alters how men relate to their own bodies and the bodies of others, both male and female. His examplesranging from Santa Claus to Sancho Panza, from Falstaff to Babe Ruth, from Nero Wolfe to Al Rokerillustrate the complexity perennially associated with fat men. From discourses about normality to the playing fields of baseball, from Greek male beauty to the fat detective, Gilman’s book examines and illuminates how cultures have imagined and portrayed the fat boy.
Gilman opens a valuable conversation about the cultural history of obesity that examines how we have come to understand -- and misunderstand -- the condition.