The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh

by Dennis Patrick Slattery

An almost obsessive interest in the human body in literary and psychological theory over the past ten years has uncovered not just the physical body but the body as metaphor, political emblem, social construction, and symptom. The Wounded Body builds on this recent interest in the body by providing an ambitious interdisciplinary exploration of the wounded body in literature from Homer to Toni Morrison. Guided by insights from phenomenology to Jungian archetypal psychology, Dennis Slattery argues that the body in its scarred, marked, diseased, tattooed, or otherwise afflicted state is not only an individual phenomenon but, in the hands of the poet, a cultural symptom, a place of suffering, as well as a way of seeing and ordering the experience of the one who is wounded.

Genres: Literary Criticism, Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 1999

About the author

Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D., is a core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute who helped shape the development of the Mythological Studies program.

He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 17 books, including four volumes of poetry.

He likes motorcycles and currently resides in Texas with his wife Sandy.

Reviews

[Ramona P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Slattery's book amplifies the need for us to connect with our bodies and how important it is to embrace our humanity. He explores avenues that describe the embedded codes that ooze out of our pours. He asks us to get beyond the popular rhetoric connected to Victorian ideals about flesh and body and plunge deeply into the "gifts" found within our carnal markings.