Description
Extra/ordinary bodies
Book summary
This collective work gathers a series of critical essays that analyze the relationship between the body, deviance, and the norm in the context of Latin America and Spain. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the authors explore how cultural representations and social discourses construct the notion of "extra/ordinary" bodies—those situated on the margins of what is considered normal. The volume invites us to rethink the fragility and potential of every body, challenging traditional narratives of pity, exoticization, and correction. A fundamental text for understanding the politicization of the corporeal as a cultural artifact.
What is it about?
The book starts from the premise that the body is a cultural and politicized artifact, ideal for reading the societies that produce it. Its essays examine the staging of the "extra/ordinary" as a morphology opposed to and disconnected from normality, analyzing its functions and limitations. The transgression of a norm, of the ordinary, is the starting point for investigating the hybridity of the stories of such transgression and the rearticulation of other narratives (of pity, exhibition, exoticization, correction, and even annihilation) that traditionally accompany the extra/ordinary. The horizons of possibility for the narratives surrounding these nomadic figures are explored, in their constant oscillation between the familiar and the strange, the unpleasant and the attractive, the interior and the exterior. Thus, new paths are opened for the analysis of the discursive, performative, and representational strategies through which these figures propose and simultaneously contest certain notions of identity and alterity.
Main themes
- Cultural studies of the body and corporeality in the Hispanic world
- Analysis of deviance and transgression as social and cultural constructions
- Representations of illness, fragmentation, and weakness in literature and art
- Narratives of pity, exoticization, and correction of marginal bodies
- Relationships between identity, alterity, and the politics of difference
- Discursive and performative strategies surrounding the strange and the familiar
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at researchers, academics, and graduate students in cultural studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, and the social sciences interested in the analysis of the body and its representations. It is also of great value to professionals in queer theory, gender studies, and the medical humanities, as well as to readers with an interest in contemporary critical thought regarding normality, deviance, and identity politics in Latin American and Spanish contexts.
What this book contributes
- An interdisciplinary and updated view on the cultural construction of marginal and deviant bodies
- Theoretical tools to analyze how narratives of transgression and correction shape our perception of identity and alterity
- A critical approach that denaturalizes notions of normality and proposes new ways of understanding the fragility and potential of every body
- Detailed analyses of specific cases and discourses from Latin America and Spain, offering an enriching comparative framework
- An original contribution to contemporary debates on body politics, difference, and cultural representation
Technical specifications
- Author: Various authors
- Publisher: Linkgua Digital
- Language: Spanish
- Topic: CLASSIC TEXTS
- Collection: FONDO
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication date: January 2021
- Number of pages: 375
- Weight: 504 g
Editorial assessment
Extra/ordinary bodies presents itself as a reference work for those interested in the "corporeal turn" of cultural studies. Its value lies in its ability to articulate a critical dialogue between different disciplines, offering a rigorous and nuanced analysis of how Latin American and Spanish societies have constructed and managed bodily difference. The collection of essays does not only diagnose the narratives of exclusion and control, but also opens avenues for rethinking the agency and potential of bodies considered deviant. It is, without a doubt, essential reading for understanding the complex intersections between body, power, and culture in the Hispanic realm.