The Resurrection Trade

by Leslie Adrienne Miller

Poet Leslie Adrienne Miller's brilliant and provocative exploration of anatomical texts and historical assumptions about the body

Whoever they were, they're still with us,
posing demurely in suits of blood
and muscle, the bruised shadows
of what skin they do have . . .
―from "Gautier d'Agoty's Écorchés"

"The resurrection trade," the business of trafficking in corpses, is an old trade, one that makes possible the art of anatomy and, as poet Leslie Adrienne Miller discovers, the art of her own book. Miller delves into the mysteries of early anatomical studies and medical illustrations and finds there stories of women's lives―sometimes tragic, sometimes comic―as exposed as the drawings themselves. These meticulously researched and rendered poems become powerful testimonies to women's bodies objectified and misunderstood throughout history. Miller's sensuous and harrowing fifth collection brings a new truth to what she calls "the strange collusion of imaginary science and real art."

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2007

About the author

Minnesota Public Radio Interview and Audio Poems

http://minnesota.akamai.publicradio.o...

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensual in the way that only entrails can be!

Seriously, these poems are lovely--despite the frequent focus on anatomical studies of Gautier D'Agoty and other dissection artists. Here's a link to a sample poem from this volume:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archi...

and a link to some of the images that inspired poems:

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&am...

I do recommend Miller's book to those who appreciate that mix of humor and horror that is the grotesque.

Sample lines:

"Because her back is turned on us
and peeled outward from the ribs,
her namesake wings of skin surprise us
into thinking Fra Angelico--who taught
us all what textures wings might take..."

("The Flayed Angel")

"After D'Agoty's macabre ecorches
and Rymsdyck's tendency to coil
his innards tight as bags of fists
and then to paint a fatty sheen
on every part, I gasp out loud
when I find Le Boursier's soft machine
of linen and leather, the woman's thighs
great hams of rosy fabric gathered
at the knees like parlor bolsters..."

("Madame du Coudray's Woman Machine, 1756")

I do hope Jack-the-Ripper wanna-be's aren't reading....

[Laura E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing collection of contemporary poetry. I read it originally for my senior seminar course at university and just finished rereading it for fun. Though Miller's compilation is inspired by the 18th anatomical corpse paintings of Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty, she creates an poignant commentary that is ekphrastic while still relevant to the modern reader.

Her driving metaphor arises from nature of the resurrection trade itself. While all types of bodies were dissected, Miller's centers her study on the bodies of women that were "flayed," stripped of all their mystery and delicacy before the prying eyes of the strictly male audience who observed the autopsy. There is something perversely sexualized about this process that cuts right to the nerve of many feminist critics.

The poem "Cherries" is a particular favorite of mine.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a unique book of poetry that mixes art with science. It's a great blend of personal reflection and broader observations and is pretty educational to boot. It's worth Googling some of the images that Miller refers to in the book--they're fascinating (and sort of beautifully grotesque) and make the poems even richer.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

You should go ahead and judge this book by its cover...enGROSSing. I liked Miller's choice in making this book more than just a fascinating history of the resurrection trade and its images. She weaves her own current life, her own pregnancy and child's development, even 9-11, into her reflections (pun very much intended), making you feel her "walk/into a history of the body of woman."

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult, but worth the effort.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of so much of this. But I found myself drifting.

[Alix · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject matter is fascinating, but the plain-spoken, lyric-narrative approach is not my style. When these poems are good, they're good, but the ones I preferred were few and far betwen.