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Damaging the Body series
Physical Harm and the Self, 1850 - 2010
- External site: http://damagingthebody.org/
This seminar series builds on material presented at the September 2010 'Damaging the Body' workshop on representations of physical damage to the body in Victorian psychiatry. Whether as treatment or symptom of illness, the problematic discourse of the Victorian body extended well beyond the asylum, incorporating elements as diverse as the functional 'self-mutilation' of hysteria (as Roy Porter has termed it), the physical effects of alcohol, opiates or syphilis and the relationship between tattooing and criminality. Moreover, in the later decades of the century, suicide, insanity and crime became strongly connected, throughout Europe and North America, to discourses on the physical and mental degeneration of the race. This complicated and often contradictory dialogue has not been simplified in the twentieth century; the late twentieth century in particular has seen so-called 'epidemics' of suicide, self-harm, binge-drinking and anorexia nervosa, repeatedly represented by the media as the all-but inescapable perils of modern society. Discourses on the damaged body thus continue to strongly influence our perceptions of ourselves, our ideas of gender, and of the relationship between body and mind. Through a variety of disciplines, including history, sociology, art, gender studies and literature, this seminar series will explore elements of bodily damage in the last 150 years, opening up wider historical, sociological and psychological concerns.
Seminars are open to all, no registration required, and start at 6pm (doors open 5.45–6.15). Speakers will talk for 40–50 minutes on a topic, followed by a similar period for discussion. For more information, contact Sarah Chaney on s.chaney@ucl.ac.uk
9 May 2011
| 6.00-7.30pm |
Damaging the Body Marking the Criminal Body: Degeneration and Tattooing in Nineteenth Century France Gemma Angel, UCL |
31 May 2011
| 6.00-7.30pm |
Damaging the Body Stand Up Straight: Towards a History of the Science of Posture Sander Gilman, Emory University |
