Forth Christopher E., Leitch Alison (eds.) Fat: Culture and Materiality

Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. — 208 p."Fat". In contemporary society the word never fails to elicit powerful emotions, especially as it relates to bodily health and appearance. But fat is a noun as well as an adjective and has a cultural life outside of its relationship with the human body. By focusing on the complex physical and experiential dimensions of this problematic substance, Fat: Culture and Materiality breaks new ground in the study of the relationship between culture and the material world.With contributions from well-respected international scholars, this innovative and interdisciplinary collection will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in fat and its relationship to culture, materiality and lived experience. The volume addresses the role of fats in a variety of cultural settings. Topics include the politics of Palestinian olive oil; the allure of pig fat in heritage pork; the material sources of fat stereotypes in classical and biblical texts; the use of harvested fat in aesthetic surgery; and the status of fat in the self-narratives of anorexics.Christopher E. Forth is the Howard Professor of Humanities & Western Civilization and Professor of History at the University of Kansas, USA. Alison Leitch is a social anthropologist who teaches in the cultural sociology program at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.