Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England

Alanna Skuse

doi:10.1017/9781108919395

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.

‘This is a valuable, well-researched examination of how altered bodies disrupted ideas about the self within an early modern Christian context. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty’.

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Contents

Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England
pp i-ii
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Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England - Title page
pp iii-iii
Altered Bodies and Contexts of Identity
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Copyright page
pp iv-iv
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Contents
pp v-v
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Figures
pp vi-vi
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Acknowledgements
pp vii-viii
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Introduction
pp 1-15
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Chapter 1 - The Instrumental Body: Castrati
pp 16-34
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Chapter 2 - Invisible Women: Altered Female Bodies
pp 35-55
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Chapter 3 - Second-Hand Faces: Aesthetic Surgery
pp 56-80
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Chapter 4 - Acting the Part: Prosthetic Limbs
pp 81-108
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Chapter 5 - ‘Recompact My Scattered Parts’: the Altered Body after Death
pp 109-137
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Chapter 6 - Phantom Limbs and the Hard Problem
pp 138-163
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Conclusion
pp 164-173
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Bibliography
pp 174-196
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Index
pp 197-202
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Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England

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Contents

Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England
pp i-ii

Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Contents
pp v-v

Figures
pp vi-vi

Acknowledgements
pp vii-viii

Introduction
pp 1-15

Chapter 1 - The Instrumental Body: Castrati
pp 16-34

Chapter 2 - Invisible Women: Altered Female Bodies
pp 35-55

Chapter 3 - Second-Hand Faces: Aesthetic Surgery
pp 56-80

Chapter 4 - Acting the Part: Prosthetic Limbs
pp 81-108

Chapter 5 - ‘Recompact My Scattered Parts’: the Altered Body after Death
pp 109-137

Chapter 6 - Phantom Limbs and the Hard Problem
pp 138-163

Conclusion
pp 164-173

Bibliography
pp 174-196

Index
pp 197-202

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Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England

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