A Cultural History of the Senses (The Cultural Histories Series) - Hardcover
What did the past sound like, taste like, smell like? How did it look and feel? How did people make sense of the world through their senses? These are questions which are increasingly capturing the interest of historians. A Cultural History of the Senses delves into the sensory foundations of Western civilization, taking a comprehensive period-by-period approach, which provides a broad understanding of the life of the senses from antiquity to the modern day. The volumes treat such topics as the sensory markers of gender and class, the aesthetic dimensions of material culture, religious sensibilities, the medical uses of the senses and their representation in art and literature. These investigations bring out the sensations and values which defined experience in a particular era and shaped the world view of the time. With contributions from such prominent scholars as Peter Burke, Alain Corbin, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Chris Woolgar, A Cultural History of the Senses sets the stage for a vital new way of understanding the past.
A Cultural History of the Senses presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. This set of six volumes explores the cultural life of the senses in the West over a span of 2500 years:
1. A Cultural History of the Senses in Antiquity, 500 BCE-500 CE edited by Jerry Toner (University of Cambridge, UK)
2. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Middle Ages, 500-1450 edited by Richard Newhauser (Arizone State University, USA)
3. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Renaissance, 1450-1650 edited by Herman Roodenburg (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
4. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Enlightenment, 1650-1800 edited by Anne Vila (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
5. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Empire, 1800-1920 edited by Constance Classen (McGill University, Canada)
6. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age, 1920-2000 edited by David Howes (Concordia University, Canada)
Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: The Social Life of the Senses; Urban Sensations; The Senses in the Marketplace; The Senses in Religion; The Senses in Philosophy and Science; Medicine and the Senses; The Senses in Literature; Art and the Senses; and Sensory Media. This structure means that readers can either have a broad overview of a period or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.
Superbly illustrated, the full six volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on the senses in history.
A Cultural History of the Senses presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. This set of six volumes explores the cultural life of the senses in the West over a span of 2500 years:
1. A Cultural History of the Senses in Antiquity, 500 BCE-500 CE edited by Jerry Toner (University of Cambridge, UK)
2. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Middle Ages, 500-1450 edited by Richard Newhauser (Arizone State University, USA)
3. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Renaissance, 1450-1650 edited by Herman Roodenburg (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
4. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Enlightenment, 1650-1800 edited by Anne Vila (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
5. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Empire, 1800-1920 edited by Constance Classen (McGill University, Canada)
6. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age, 1920-2000 edited by David Howes (Concordia University, Canada)
Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: The Social Life of the Senses; Urban Sensations; The Senses in the Marketplace; The Senses in Religion; The Senses in Philosophy and Science; Medicine and the Senses; The Senses in Literature; Art and the Senses; and Sensory Media. This structure means that readers can either have a broad overview of a period or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.
Superbly illustrated, the full six volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on the senses in history.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
Over the past couple of decades, sensory historians have been working to restore taste, touch, smell and hearing to our understanding of the past. Some of the dividends of this approach are on display in the six highly engaging and authoritative volumes that have been gathered together as A Cultural History of the Senses under the general editorship of historian Constance Classen [...] These impressive volumes enable us to venture beyond the credo that 'seeing is believing' and to better appreciate the original iteration of that phrase as it was used in the medieval period: 'Seeing is believing but feeling's the truth.' For the same reason, A Cultural History of the Senses reminds us that histories of smell, sound, taste and touch-as well as of sight-are remarkably useful in helping us remember that the truth is more complex than it might first appear. -- The Wall Street Journal
What exactly is the enterprise [of this work]? Most obviously, it is to take historical inquiry into a new area. More ambitiously, it is to extend and perhaps even alter our understanding of areas we already think we know. Most excitingly, we can hope that it might extend our understanding of the relations more generally between biology, circumstance, sensation and expression. -- Times Literary Supplement
An authoritative and, undoubtedly, the most comprehensive distillation of work in this field ... If you have not yet discovered this field, your journey starts here. -- Cultural and Social History
About the Author:
What exactly is the enterprise [of this work]? Most obviously, it is to take historical inquiry into a new area. More ambitiously, it is to extend and perhaps even alter our understanding of areas we already think we know. Most excitingly, we can hope that it might extend our understanding of the relations more generally between biology, circumstance, sensation and expression. -- Times Literary Supplement
An authoritative and, undoubtedly, the most comprehensive distillation of work in this field ... If you have not yet discovered this field, your journey starts here. -- Cultural and Social History
Constance Classen is Visiting Scholar at McGill University, Canada and director of an interdisciplinary project on art, museums and the senses. She is the editor of The Book of Touch (2005), and the author of, among other works, Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures (1993), The Color of Angels: Cosmology, Gender and the Aesthetic Imagination (1998) and The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (2012).
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherBloomsbury Academic
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 0857853384
- ISBN 13 9780857853387
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages1641
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