Susan E. Hill

Eating to Excess (eBook, PDF)

The Meaning of Gluttony and the Fat Body in the Ancient World

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

This provocative book explores how ancient notions about the fat body and the glutton in western culture both challenge and confirm ideas about what it means to be overweight and gluttonous today.

People in the ancient western world made a distinction between being fat and being a glutton, even when they valued self-control and criticized excessive behavior. Examining many works of early western cultures, this book shows how ancient views both confirm and challenge our contemporary assumptions about fat bodies and gluttons.

Eating to Excess: The Meaning of Gluttony and the Fat Body in the Ancient World explores the historical roots of the symbolic relationship between fatness, gluttony, and immorality in western culture. It includes chapters on Greek philosophy, medicine, and physiognomy; Greek and Roman popular culture; early Christianity; and the development of gluttony as one of the seven deadly sins. By examining ancient ideas about gluttony and fat bodies, the author offers new insight into what it means to be human in the western world.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 196
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. September 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313385070
• Artikelnr.: 37827585

Autorenporträt

Susan E. Hill, PhD, is associate professor of religion at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA.

Inhaltsangabe

Illustrations Series Foreword by Bella Vivante Acknowledgments Chronology
of Important Dates Introduction: The Glutton and the Fat Body in the
Ancient World 1. "All Fat Is the Lord's" 2. Philosophizing Excess in Plato
And Aristotle 3. Inside and Out: Medicine, Health, and Physiognomy in the
Ancient World 4. Popular Gluttons and Fat Bodies: The Trickster Herakles,
Petronius's Satyricon, and Athenaeus's The Learned Banqueters 5. Ingest the
Word, Not the World: Early Christian Ideas of Excess and Self-Restraint 6.
Gluttony Becomes a Deadly Sin Epilogue Notes Further Reading Index