Notes from the Body: Health, Illness, Trauma - Softcover

Duncan Brown (editor)|Kobus Moolman (editor)|Nkosinathi Sithole (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1869145321 ISBN 13: 9781869145323

Publisher: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2024

Synopsis

This book was conceptualised prior to the global reckoning with 'this mortal body' unleashed by the Covid pandemic. It is an attempt to (re)turn attention to the body as that through which so much of our humanness is experienced, mediated, enjoyed, suffered, understood and expressed. But Covid forcibly returned us to the body in ways that none of us could ever have imagined. Perhaps Notes from the Body could not be more timely. The variety of possible bodies for which the contributors seek a voice reminds us of the multiple ways in which we may be human. Through various creative forms, the pieces in this volume present the body as, among other things: sick, violated, racialised, healed, performing, ageing, (multiply) gendered, spiritual, abused, 'disabled', broken, sexual, animalised, medical, controlled, interrupted, failing, rejected and abject. Several themes recur: humanisation and dehumanisation; the loss or recovery of agency; dignity and humiliation; violation of the bounds of self; the integrity or wholeness of the body; the body's betrayal; and mourning or celebrating the body.

About this title

About the Author

Duncan Brown is Professor of English in the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research at the University of the Western Cape.

Kobus Moolman is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of the Western Cape.

Nkosinathi Sithole was, until recently, Associate Professor of English at the University of the Western Cape, until he resigned to focus full-time on his writing.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1869145321
• ISBN 13: 9781869145323
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272