Most human bodies have two arms, two legs, hands, feet, a head. Yet the body, as we perceive it, is ultimately a cultural construct defined by the values and meanings each individual, and each culture, ascribes to it. Beyond its corporeal realities, the implications of the body-how we adorn, alter, heal, and please it-are potentially endless, limited only by the manner in which we frame it. Revealing how the human body has served as as metaphor for social process, the anthology unveils the body as intrinsically configured by politics, gender, racial categories, fears of pollution, and commercial forces which exploit and regulate it. Historical snapshots of American bodies over the past two and a half centuries, the essays in this volume cover such diverse subjects as sailor tattoos, maritime cannibalism in the early 1800's, birth control, rest cures for neurasthenia, and, more recently, anorexia, boxing, cyberpunk, and plastic surgery. Drawing from history, literary and cultural studies, and film studies, American bodies is an eclectic, stimulating collection that will challenge many fundamental beliefs about our physical form.
Tim Armstrong is Senior Lecturer in English at Royal Holloway college at the University of London.
".[A] must read for anyone interested in the problems of gender and politics in rap music. Charise Cheney combines an historian's insight with an expansive knowledge of hip-hop culture to produce this remarkable study of the rise of artists influenced by black nationalism--the self-proclaimed "raptivists." Cheney dives head-on into the contentious debates regarding the articulations of masculinity and black nationalism in rap, and how these reflect black Americans' age-old desire for power and authority. A vital contribution." -Jane Rhodes, author of "Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon" "A lively, unique, and often revisionist perspective on the sexual politics of hip-hop culture." -William L. Van Deburg, author of "New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975" "A provocative analysis that no one will be able to ignore. A compelling challenge to consider the ways that patriarchy has influenced the movement for black self-determination." -"Choice", Highly Recommended, "A study of rap singers of the 1980s and 90s that sets their political expression in the context of the racial and sexual politics of black nationalism since the early 19th century." -"The Chronicle", "In her book, Cheney tries to dispel the notion that all rap music is about sex, violence and bling. . . . The book is insightful--particularly to white Americans who don't get the appeal of Louis Farrakhan or to older African-Americans whose knowledge of black music stops at Smokey Robinson. After reading this book, both groups might at least be tempted to sample some Public Enemy music." -"The San Luis Obispo Tribune",
