The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging

by José van Dijck

From the potent properties of X rays evoked in Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain to the miniaturized surgical team of the classic science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, the possibility of peering into the inner reaches of the body has engaged the twentieth-century popular and scientific imagination. Drawing on examples that are international in scope, The Transparent Body examines the dissemination of medical images to a popular audience, advancing the argument that medical imaging technologies are the material embodiment of collective desires and fantasies--the most pervasive of which is the ideal of transparency itself. The Transparent Body traces the cultural context and wider social impact of such medical imaging practices as X ray and endoscopy, ultrasound imaging of fetuses, the filming and broadcasting of surgical operations, the creation of plastinated corpses for display as art objects, and the use of digitized cadavers in anatomical study.

In the early twenty-first century, the interior of the body has become a pervasive cultural presence - as accessible to the public eye as to the physician's gaze. Jose van Dijck explores the multifaceted interactions between medical images and cultural ideologies that have brought about this situation. The Transparent Body unfolds the complexities involved in medical images and their making, illuminating their uses and meanings both within and outside of medicine. Van Dijck demonstrates the ways in which the ability to render the inner regions of the human body visible - and the proliferation of images of the body's interior in popular media - affect our view of corporeality and our understanding of health and disease. Written in an engaging style that brings thought-provoking cultural intersections vividly to life, The Transparent Body will be of special interest to those in media studies, cultural studies, science and technology studies, medical humanities, and the history of medicine.

Genres: Bodies

Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

José van Dijck is a professor of Comparative Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Reviews

[Chris Friend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessibly written, this text provides clear approaches to thinking about the shape of medical imaging in modern culture.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for an assignment - skimmed through for certain ideas, and read some chapters in detail. Overall really enjoyed it and once the project is further from my mind, I will read it again. ** Read in 2020 but not counting it for the challenge

[Derek Lacoursiere · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Transparent Body draws clever parallels between modern medical imaging technologies and historical practices, weighing the social and cultural implications of imaging technologies along the way. Although one finishes the book feeling as if only a cursory glance has been given to the topic, it is a worthwhile read.