Foreign Bodies and the Body Politic

Examines attitudes to the body, disease and society in Tudor and early Stuart England.

Klappentext

Examines attitudes to the body, disease and society in Tudor and early Stuart England.

Zusammenfassung
This book examines the overlap between early modern English attitudes to disease and society and explores the cultural meaning of the image of the body. One can detect the origins of not only modern xenophobic attitudes to foreigners as carriers of disease, but also 'germ' theory in general.

Inhalt

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on the text; 1. Introduction: functionalist organicism and the origins of social pathology; Part I. Pathologizing the Body Politic: 2. 'Enter at the least pore': early modern medicine and bodily infiltration; 3. 'Ev'ry poison good for some use': the poisonous political pharmacy and its discontents; Part II. Handy-Dandy, Which is the Justice, Which is the Thief?: 4. Public enemas: the disjunctions of the excremental Jewish pharmakon; 5. 'To stop her mouth with Truth's authority': the poisonous tongue of the witch and the word of God; Conclusion: the persistence of the pathological body politic; Notes; Bibliography; Index.