Beyond the gymnasium : educating the middle-class bodies in classical Germany / Heikki Lempa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lempa, Heikki.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physical education and training--Germany--History--19th century.

Physical education and training.

Middle class--Germany--Social life and customs--19th century.

Middle class.

Blood--Social aspects--Germany--History--19th century.

Blood.

Blood--Social aspects.

History.

Manners and customs.

Germany.

Physical Description:

xi, 292 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, [2007]

Summary:

Beyond the Gymnasium is the first systematic effort to examine the history of the body in modern Germany. By looking into medical dietetics, walking, dancing, gymnastics, cholera, and classrooms, Heikki Lempa reconstructs the ways the middle-class body became a source of political and social autonomy and a medium of social interaction. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century, German physicians defined the middle-class body as qualitatively different from the lower-class body. This belief was supported by a contemporary science known as dietetics. Lempa provides a history and analysis of this science. Beyond the Gymnasium also explores the social implications of court dancing and gymnastics.

In the eighteenth century, the French court dances set the standards of upper- and middle-class conduct. In the 1810s, the gymnastics movement challenged this tradition by propagating vigorous physical exercise and egalitarian social interaction. In 1819, the ban on gymnastics contributed to the rapid spread of dancing clubs, ballrooms, public promenades, and spas; the old forms of bodily interaction underwent a renaissance. These two trends-the quest for bodily autonomy and the continuity of traditional bodily conduct-played an important role in the status of the German middle class in the nineteenth century. In social interaction, it continued to cultivate those forms that had endowed the old regime with its specific character and flair. To explain this, the book explores the forms of social recognition in dancing, greeting, and walking, and discovers that the German middle class displayed an aptitude for social recognition of asymmetrical relationships.

Contents:

Part 1 Quest for Bodily Autonomy 16

2 Dietetics 18

3 Restoring the Balance 47

Part 2 Practices of Bodily Education 65

4 Gymnastics 67

5 Dance 112

6 Walking 163

Part 3 The Crises of the 1830s 195

7 Cholera 197

8 The Uberburdung Debate and Gymnasium 216.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-280) and index.

ISBN:

9780739120897

0739120891

9780739120903

0739120905

OCLC:

77494496