(Extra)ordinary bodies : othered, violated, and devoured

This collection of essays addresses how the boundaries of nature were understood in the last ten centuries, from four different perspectives: the connections between life and death; the authorities' control over the body; the treatment of living and dead bodies; and the contamination of the human body by animals. The chapters focus on liminalities separating life from death, bodies from other bodies, human from animal bodies, and covered from naked body parts. They approach corporeal otherness through a wide range of sources, such as penitentials, sumptuary laws, chronicles, medical texts, collections of charms, scientific treatises, folklore, literature and iconographic evidence. The multiple bodies investigated in this book could cause fear and shame, give an appetite (at least for revenge), have healing powers, or be used as instruments for medical purposes.

Each contribution presents (extra)ordinary situations that imply (extra)ordinary uses and conceptualisations of the body, and suggest that, in some cases, what is now understood as extraordinary was often interpreted as perfectly possible. [Publisher's text]

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