Surgery and selfhood in early modern England : altered bodies and contexts of identity

Offering an innovative perspective on early modern debates concerning embodiment, Alanna Skuse examines diverse kinds of surgical alteration, from mastectomy to castration, and amputation to facial reconstruction. Body-altering surgeries had profound socio-economic and philosophical consequences. They reached beyond the physical self, and prompted early modern authors to develop searching questions about the nature of body integrity and its relationship to the soul: was the body a part of one's identity, or a mere 'prison' for the mind? How was the body connected to personal morality? What happened to the altered body after death? Drawing on a wide variety of texts including medical treatises, plays, poems, newspaper reports and travel writings, this volume will argue the answers to these questions were flexible, divergent and often surprising, and helped to shape early modern thoughts on philosophy, literature, and the natural sciences. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 The Instrumental Body: Castrati Manufactured Men Sex Objects Beyond Instrumentality Conclusion Chapter 2 Invisible Women: Altered Female Bodies Altering the Female Body Amazons Abject Alteration Conclusion Chapter 3 Second-Hand Faces: Aesthetic Surgery Saving Face 'Hypocrisy of Countenance' Reputation and Rhinoplasty Conclusion Chapter 4 Acting the Part: Prosthetic Limbs The Prosthetic in Society Titus Andronicus and the Point of the Staff Conclusion Chapter 5 'Recompact My Scattered Parts': the Altered Body after Death Scholarly Contexts The Miracle of the Black Leg Returning to the Grave Conclusion Chapter 6 Phantom Limbs and the Hard Problem Thinking with Phantoms: Early Modern Theories of Sensation Descartes and Phantom Pain The Hard Problem Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Primary Sources Newspapers/Periodicals Secondary Sources Index