by Pasi Falk (Author)
This is a fascinating examination of the relationship between consumption, the idea of the body and the formation of the self. In tracing these connections, The Consuming Body develops a profile of individuality in the late twentieth century - in both its bodily and mental aspects.
Pasi Falk offers a major synthesis and critical assessment of the debates surrounding the body, the self and contemporary consumer culture. He explores two fundamental issues for modern social theory - the delineation of modern consumption and the body's historically changing position in various cultural orders. In the course of his argument he examines both metaphors of consumption and investigates the issues of representation in advertising and pornography.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 259
Edition: 1
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Published: 21 Jul 1994
ISBN 10: 0803989741
ISBN 13: 9780803989740
`Although the sociology of the body is a major issue in contemporary social science, we do not as yet possess a comprehensive theory. Pasi Falk's remarkable analysis of consumption and the body goes a long way to providing such a comprehensive and synoptic overview of the problems of the body as a topic of research. Through a sustained analysis of the mouth and consumption he provides an extraordinarily provocative and compelling analysis of corporality and culture. This is not a text to be easily consumed, but it will play a formative role in restructuring contemporary debate about the body, culture and society. In particular it will be no longer possible to ignore the nature of human embodiment in debates about need and consumption. A profound tour de force of contemporary sociological theory, it will undoubtedly become a central text in the analysis of the sensory body' - Bryan S Turner