Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture

by Nadja Durbach

In 1847, during the great age of the freak show, the British periodical Punch bemoaned the public's “prevailing taste for deformity.” This vividly detailed work argues that far from being purely exploitative, displays of anomalous bodies served a deeper social purpose as they generated popular and scientific debates over the meanings attached to bodily difference. Nadja Durbach examines freaks both well-known and obscure including the Elephant Man; “Lalloo, the Double-Bodied Hindoo Boy,” a set of conjoined twins advertised as half male, half female; Krao, a seven-year-old hairy Laotian girl who was marketed as Darwin's “missing link”; the ”Last of the Mysterious Aztecs” and African “Cannibal Kings,” who were often merely Irishmen in blackface. Upending our tendency to read late twentieth-century conceptions of disability onto the bodies of freak show performers, Durbach shows that these spectacles helped to articulate the cultural meanings invested in otherness--and thus clarified what it meant to be British—at a key moment in the making of modern and imperial ideologies and identities.

Genres: Nonfiction, Disability, History, Disability Studies, European History, Academic

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[stella m · Rating 5 out of 5]

well i’m sure this is going to be the most instructive review ever. I somehow read this with the same voracity as I read fiction. idk if that’s a result of my deep interest in the topic or of the accessibility of the writing, but either way, great book! thoroughly researched and well put together. if you’re super interested in freak shows and want to read 300 pages about freak shows in a fully academic work of writing, yes! go! do it! I did!

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very scholarly book that chronicles Freak shows in Victorian and Edwardian England. I enjoyed reading about the history of some of the freaks of nature--Elephant Man, Laloo and Lala, etc. It was an accepted entertainment and honorable way to entertain and earn money. Think of Son of Frankenstein--the tap dance number--the freaks entertained by showing off talents, speaking and educating the public. Actually they had a pretty good gig until doctors got a hold of them. Queen Victoria and medical professionals were big customers. Ethnological displays of Aztecs, Zuus, and other "Bushmen" were part of these shows. These were often faked with people of color and Irishmen. I didn't know the Irish were so looked down upon by the British. Anyway, freak shows say more about the rest of us, than they do the entertainers. The pictures of the old advertisements were great. I just wish this had fewer notes and a more engaging writing style; it was too textbookish.

[Tom Darrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one. Going beyond the simplistic story that freak shows were purely exploitive and argues that they were a place where 19th century Britons had debates about gender, nationality, class among other things. For example, one version of the elephant man was that he needed the help of a doctor to save him from the side shows. On the other hand, some people view him as a working class man with pride, selling his deformity to the crowd because he couldn't sell anything else.

Anyone who likes British history, cultural and gender studies or off beat history in general would like this book.

[Emily]

This is pretty interesting so far. I heard an interview with the author on the radio and thought it sounded interesting. It's all about British freak shows in the 1900's. Who knows.