Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 273 pages) : illustrations |
Contents |
Cover -- Table of Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Monstrosity, Masculinity, and Medicine -- 2. Two Bodies, Two Selves, Two Sexes -- 3. The Missing Link and the Hairy Belle -- 4. Aztecs and Earthmen -- 5. "When the Cannibal King Began to Talk" -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index |
Summary |
In 1847, during the great age of the freak show, the British periodical Punch bemoaned the public's "prevailing taste for deformity." This vividly detailed work argues that far from being purely exploitative, displays of anomalous bodies served a deeper social purpose as they generated popular and scientific debates over the meanings attached to bodily difference. Nadja Durbach examines freaks both well-known and obscure including the Elephant Man; "Lalloo, the Double-Bodied Hindoo Boy," a set of conjoined twins advertised as half male, half female; Krao, a seven-year-old hairy Laotian girl wh |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
Notes |
Print version record |
Subject |
Abnormalities, Human -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
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Freak shows -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
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Human body -- Social aspects -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
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Congenital Abnormalities -- history
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History, 19th Century
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PERFORMING ARTS -- Circus.
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HISTORY -- Europe -- General.
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Abnormalities, Human.
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Freak shows.
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Human body -- Social aspects.
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SUBJECT |
United Kingdom |
Subject |
Great Britain.
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Genre/Form |
History.
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Form |
Electronic book
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ISBN |
9780520944893 |
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0520944895 |
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1282359975 |
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9781282359970 |
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