The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity : Body Image in Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton

The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity offers the first sustained examination of fatness in the early modern period. As Levy-Navarro notes, bodily perceptions have evolved that value the thin body as they mark and stigmatize the fat one. Using readings of such major figures as Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton, this book considers alternative ways that fat was constructed before the introduction of the modern pathologized category of “obesity”. Levy-Navarro argues that Shakespeare, Jonson, and Skelton understood that a thin aesthetic consolidates the power of the elite and chose to align themselves with their fat, lowly, and revolting characters--an alliance that offers a model of defiance with continued relevance. The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity offers the first sustained examination of fatness in the early modern period. As Levy-Navarro notes, bodily perceptions have evolved that value the thin body as they mark and stigmatize the fat one. Using readings of such major figures as Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton, this book considers alternative ways that fat was constructed before the introduction of the modern pathologized category of "obesity". Levy-Navarro argues that Shakespeare, Jonson, and Skelton understood that a thin aesthetic consolidates the power of the elite and chose to align themselves with their fat, lowly, and revolting characters--an alliance that offers a model of defiance with continued relevance--Résumé de l'éditeur "The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity offers rhe first sustained examination of fatness in rhe early modern period. As Levy-Navarro notes, bodily perceptions have evolved that value the thin body as they mark and stigmatize the fat one. Using readings of such major figures as Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton, this book considers alternative ways that fat was constructed before the introduction of the modern pathologized category of "obesity". Levy-Navarro argues that Shakespeare, Jonson, and Skelton understood that a thin aesthetic consolidates the power of the elite and chose to align themselves with their fat, lowly, and revolting characters - an alliance that offers a model of defiance with continued relevance."--BOOK JACKET Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1 Toward a Constructionist Fat History......Page 14 2 A Time before Fat? Gluttony in Piers Plowman......Page 48 3 Emergence of Fatness Defiant: Skelton at Court......Page 58 4 Lean and Mean: Shakespeare’s Criticism of Thin Privilege......Page 80 5 Boundless Fat in Middleton’s A Game at Chess......Page 124 6 Weigh Me as a Friend: Jonson’s Multiple Constructions of the Fat Body......Page 160 Notes......Page 206 B......Page 240 D......Page 241 F......Page 242 H......Page 245 J......Page 246 M......Page 247 P......Page 248 S......Page 249 U......Page 250 Z......Page 251 This book offers the first sustained examination of fatness in the early modern period. Using readings of such major figures as Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and Skelton, this book considers alternative ways that fat was constructed before the introduction of the modern pathologized category of 'obesity'.