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Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0814782221
- ISBN 13
- 9780814782224
- Seller
-
Eureka, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
NYU Press, 1996. Trade Paperback. Very good paperback copy.
A groundbreaking anthology that probes the disposition towards the visually different
Giants. Midgets. Tribal non-Westerners. The very fat. The very thin. Hermaphrodites. Conjoined twins. The disabled. The very hirsute. In American history, all have shared the platform equally, as freaks, human oddities, their only commonality their assigned role of anomalous other to the gathered throngs. For the price of a ticket, freak shows offered spectators an icon of bodily otherness whose difference from them secured their own membership in a common American identity--by comparison ordinary, tractable, normal. Rosemarie Thomson's groundbreaking anthology probes America's disposition toward the visually different. The book's essays fall into four main categories: historical explorations of American freak shows in the era of P.T. Barnum; the articulation of the freak in literary and textual discourses; contemporary relocations of freak shows; and theoretical analyses of freak culture. Essays address such diverse topics as American colonialism and public presentations of natives; laughing gas demonstrations in the 1840's; Shirley Temple and Tom Thumb; Todd Browning's landmark movie Freaks; bodybuilders as postmodern freaks; freaks in Star Trek; Michael Jackson's identification with the Elephant Man; and the modern talk show as a reconfiguration of the freak show. In her introduction, Thomson traces the freak show from antiquity to the modern period and explores the constitutive, political, and textual properties of such exhibits. Freakery is a fresh, insightful exploration of a heretofore neglected aspect of American mass culture.Reviews
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Details
- Bookseller
- Eureka Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 326203
- Title
- Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body
- Format/Binding
- Trade Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0814782221
- ISBN 13
- 9780814782224
- Publisher
- NYU Press
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.s.a.
- Date Published
- 1996
Terms of Sale
Eureka Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item is not as described or it arrives damaged.
About the Seller
Eureka Books
Biblio member since 2008
Eureka, California
About Eureka Books
Eureka Books, established in 1987, is a classic antiquarian shop with books in all subjects and price ranges. We're open Monday - Saturday in Old Town Eureka, California.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...