Zone 4: Fragments for a History of the Human Body, Part 2

by Michel Feher (Editor), Ramona Naddaff (Contributor), Nadia Tazi (Contributor)

The forty-eight essays and photographic dossiers in these three volumes examine the history of the human body as a field where life and thought intersect. They show how different cultures at different times have entwined physical capacities and mental mechanisms in order to construct a body adapted to moral ideas or social circumstances ― the body of a charismatic citizen or a visionary monk, a mirror image of the world or a reflection of the spirit.

Each volume emphasizes a particular perspective. Part 1 explores the human body’s relationship to the divine, to the bestial, and to the machines that imitate or simulate it. Part 2 covers the junctures between the body’s “outside” and “inside” by studying the manifestations ― or production ― of the soul and the expression of the emotions and, on another level, by examining the speculations inspired by cenesthesia, pain, and death. Part 3 brings into play the classical opposition between organ and function by showing how organs or bodily substances can be used to justify or challenge the way human societies function and, conversely, how political and social functions tend to make the bodies of the persons filling them the organs of a larger body ― the social body or the universe as a whole.

Among the contributors to Fragments for a History of the Human Body are Mark Elvin, Catherine Gallagher, Françoise Héritier-Augé, Julia Kristeva, William R. LaFleur, Thomas W. Laqueur, Jacques Le Goff, Nicole Loraux, Mario Perniola, Hillel Schwartz, Jean Starobinski, Jean-Pierre Vernant, and Caroline Walker Bynum.

Genres: Art, Theory

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Michel Feher, a Belgian philosopher, is the author of Powerless by Design: The Age of the International Community and the editor of Nongovernmental Politics and Europe at a Crossroads, among other titles. Founder of Cette France-là, a monitoring group on French immigration policy, Feher is also a founding editor of Zone Books.

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I particularly like the article by Mario Perniola -Between Clothing and Nudity

A perfect summery in first paragraph

In the figurative arts eroticism appears as a relationship between clothing and nudity. Therefore, it is conditional on the possibility of movement –transit from one state to the other. If either of these poles takes on a primary or essential significance to the exclusion of the other then the possibility for this transit is sacrificed, and with it the conditions for eroticism. In such cases either clothing or nudity becomes an absolute value.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

The series Fragraments for a History of the Human Body (Parts 1, 2 and 3) had a very profound impact on my life.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid work, but overall felt less vital than the first volume. Essays were hit or miss as far as keeping my interest.

Contains pieces by Nicole Laraux, Eric Alliez and Michel Feher, Patrizia Magli, Jean-Claude Schmitt, Georges Vigarello, Carol Beckwith, René Nelli, Mario Perniola, Mark Elvin, Jean Starobinski, Paul Valéry, Hillel Schwartz, Mary Picone, Jonathan Perry, and Nadia Tazi.

[Numberbox]

Designed by Bruce May. Featured in his monograph. I own paperback with gatefolds, in Spanish.