The land of the hunger artists : science, spectacle, and authority, c. 1880-1922 / Agustí Nieto-Galan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nieto-Galan, Agustí, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hunger artists--History.

Hunger artists.

Sideshows--History.

Sideshows.

Fasting--Social aspects.

Fasting.

Fasting--Physiological aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 262 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

From the 1880s to the 1920s, hunger artists - professional fasters - lived on the fringes of public spectacle and academic experiment. Agustí Nieto-Galan presents the history of this phenomenon as popular urban spectacle and subject of scientific study, showing how hunger artists acted as mediators between the human and the social body. Doctors, journalists, impresarios , artists, and others used them to reinforce their different philosophical views, scientific schools, political ideologies, cultural values, and professional interests. The hunger artists generated heated debates on objectivity and medical pluralism, and fierce struggles over authority, recognition, and prestige. Set on the fringes of the freak show culture of the nineteenth century and the scientific study of physiology laboratories, Nieto-Galan explores the story of the public exhibition of hunger, emaciated bodies, and their enormous impact on the public sphere of their time.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Nov 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009379540 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.