The Book of Skin

by Steven Connor

Overview

Skin, Steven Connor argues, has never been more visible. The Book of Skin explores the multiple functions of the skin in the cultures of the West. In this vividly illustrated book, Connor draws on evidence from a variety of sources including literary and other forms of public and private writing, especially medical texts, as well as painting, photography, and film, folklore and popular song.

Because of its newfound visibility, skin has never been at once so manifest and so in jeopardy as it is today. This dilemma becomes evident, in Connor's view, if we examine how skin is displayed and manipulated as a site of inscription. In order to trace our culture's anxious concerns with the materiality and mortality of skin, Connor's analysis ranges from the human body itself to photography, from Medieval leprosy, Renaissance flaying, and eternal syphilis to cosmetics, plastic surgery, and skin cancers.

Connor examines the chromatics of skin color and pigmentation, blushing, suntanning, paleness, darkening, tattooing, cutting, the Turin shroud, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man. He also offers engaging explanations for why particular colors are ascribed to feelings and conditions such as green for envy, purple for rage, and yellow for cowardice. Connor's insights into the obvious and yet unfamiliar terrain of the skin and its place in Western culture ameliorates the intensities and attenuations of touch in cultural history. The Book of Skin bears out James Joyce's claim that "modern man has an epidermis rather than a soul."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801488931
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	12/08/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.64(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Steven Connor is Professor of Modern Literature and Theory in the School of English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, London.

Table of Contents

	Note on Editions and Photo Acknowledgements	6
	Pregression: A Skin That Walks	7
1	Complexion	9
2	Exposition	49
3	Disfiguring	73
4	Impression	95
5	Stigmata	119
6	Off-Colour	147
7	Unction	178
8	Aroma	211
9	Itch	227
10	The Light Touch	257
	References	283
	Index	299

What People are Saying About This

Sander L. Gilman

The largest human organ is the skin. It is so ubiquitous that we do not even think of it as an organ. Steven Connor's brilliant, readable The Book of Skin makes you very uncomfortable in your own skin because in reading you become hyperaware of it. Connor spells out the myriad, often contradictory Western meanings associated with the skin, its biology, and its psychological implications. An exhaustive, fascinating look at an aspect of the history of the body little studied and still less understood.

Editorial Reviews

Professor Steven Connor's book, a rather gothic yet highly enjoyable history of human skin, finds new substance in Sartre's thoughts. Connor uses post-war French philosophy as the frame through which he views the long history of writing and reflecting upon skin, from Classical and Renaissance medical treatises through to our modern taste for tattooing and aromatherapy oils.

The Daily Telegraph

Connor ironically contributes to what he observes as a contemporary fascination with the skin as metaphor and literalized figure while nevertheless commenting on its power and ubiquity in literature, theory, and everyday language.

Skandalon

This erudite discourse explores the various forms and functions of skin, including how it changes color and how those colors are ascribed to different feelings and conditions: green for envy, purple for rage. In passages that could make some readers' skin crawl, Connor considers why we itch and sometimes smell, as well as how our skin sheds. With cultural references, philosophy, and excerpts from archaic texts, he elaborates on these details.

Science News

"Professor Steven Connor's book, a rather gothic yet highly enjoyable history of human skin, finds new substance in Sartre's thoughts. Connor uses post-war French philosophy as the frame through which he views the long history of writing and reflecting upon skin, from Classical and Renaissance medical treatises through to our modern taste for tattooing and aromatherapy oils."—The Daily Telegraph, January 12, 2004

"This erudite discourse explores the various forms and functions of skin, including how it changes color and how those colors are ascribed to different feelings and conditions: green for envy, purple for rage. In passages that could make some readers' skin crawl, Connor considers why we itch and sometimes smell, as well as how our skin sheds. With cultural references, philosophy, and excerpts from archaic texts, he elaborates on these details."—Science News, March 20, 2004

"Connor ironically contributes to what he observes as a contemporary fascination with the skin as metaphor and literalized figure while nevertheless commenting on its power and ubiquity in literature, theory, and everyday language."—Maureen Malnyk, University of Western Ontario, Skandalon, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2005

"The largest human organ is the skin. It is so ubiquitous that we do not even think of it as an organ. Steven Connor's brilliant, readable Book of Skin makes you very uncomfortable in your own skin because in reading you become hyperaware of it. Connor spells out the myriad, often contradictory Western meanings associated with the skin, its biology, and its psychological implications. An exhaustive, fascinating look at an aspect of the history of the body little studied and still less understood."—Sander L. Gilman, University of Illinois, Chicago

From the Publisher