The Body for Beginners

Writers & Readers Documentary Comic Book #79

by Dani Cavallaro, Carline Vago-Hughes (Illustrator)

All societies create images of the body to define themselves and to establish structures of power, knowledge, meaning, and desire. This book looks at current thought about the body from a range of perspectives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Dani Cavallaro is a freelance writer specializing in literary studies, critical and cultural theory and the visual arts. Her publications include The Gothic Vision<?em>, Critical and Cultural Theory and Cyberpunk and Cyberculture.

Reviews

[Amrutha Subbukrishna]

This book by Dani Cavallaro covers all the major perspectives and theories about the body in an extremely brief manner. It covers psychoanalysis, philosophy, language and cultural conventions as the different ways of viewing the body and elaborates how the boundaries of the body are unstable. The language is easy to understand and the content is provided in simple terms. I would recommend this book only for beginners in Gender studies. Though there is no guide for further studies, you can research the several names and theories mentioned in the book for further understanding.

[Arun]

The Body for Beginners introduces the reader into a new reality; a whole new way of seeing life and the body. The body has traditionally seen as inferior to the mind times since Plato and Descartes. Whereas philosophers who came later like Nietzsche argued otherwise.
The book just faintly introduces the reader to a wide array of topics. The author just quotes all the philosophical thoughts so far and compiles a book without placing his own argument/conclusion on that subject matter. In a way, it is quite good, but doesn't give the reader a chance to ponder.
The graphics throughout the book is unnecessary and awkward. Moreover, the book assumes that readers know every of the reference he makes of; it doesn't take into consideration cultural differences. Thus, a little background details for the references he quote might have made it further better.
All in all, the book is worth a read.

[Furqan]

A very poor introduction to such a fascinating subject. The book contains a hotchpotch of disparate ideas concerning the human body with an inadequate attempt to link them together or elaborate them further. The accompanying illustrations serve no useful purpose and only hinder the reading process.

Plus, there is no guide to further reading, which I always find very helpful. 1.5 stars.