Glass Bodies: Fantasies of the Human in Cultural and Literary History

Glass Bodies tells the story of how transparent humans have appeared throughout European history—in fiction, philosophy, and science—and what they reveal about changing ideas of the human.

The book takes off in antiquity with the myth of Momus, who reproaches the gods for failing to build a window into the human heart so that humans' thoughts and wishes would be visible. From there, it follows transparent figures into the works of Cervantes, Rousseau, Sterne, and Goethe, and into the world ...