A Centre of Wonders: The Body in Early America

A Centre of Wonders: The Body in Early America

A Centre of Wonders: The Body in Early America

A Centre of Wonders: The Body in Early America

Hardcover

$130.00 
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Overview

Images of bodies and bodily practices abound in early America: from spirit possession, Fasting Days, and infanticide to running the gauntlet, going "naked as a sign," flogging, bundling, and scalping. All have implications for the study of gender, sexuality, masculinity, illness, the "body politic," spirituality, race, and slavery. The first book devoted solely to the history and theory of the body in early American cultural studies brings together authors representing diverse academic disciplines.Drawing on a wide range of archival sources—including itinerant ministers' journals, Revolutionary tracts and broadsides, advice manuals, and household inventories—they approach the theoretical analysis of the body in exciting new ways. A Centre of Wonders covers such varied topics as dance and movement among Native Americans; invading witch bodies in architecture and household spaces; rituals of baptism, conversion, and church discipline; eighteenth-century women's journaling; and the body as a rhetorical device in the language of diplomacy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801436017
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication date: 06/06/2001
Pages: 296
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Janet Moore Lindman is Associate Professor of History at Rowan University. Michele Lise Tarter is Assistant Professor of English at The College of New Jersey.

What People are Saying About This

Susan Juster

An important and eminently readable collection, A Centre of Wonders gathers many wonderful essays as it pursues a compelling problematic.

Dana D. Nelson

A Centre of Wonders displays the exciting work of critics and historians currently redefining early American studies. The organization is smart, representing an array of cultural studies approaches to embodiment and building bridges between literary, historical, geographical, and visual studies of early America. There is no comparable book on the subject.

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