Facialities: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Human Face – serie

What is a face and how does it relate to personhood? Approaching Facial Difference: Past and Present offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the many ways in which faces have been represented in the past and present, focusing on the issue of facial difference and disfigurement read in the light of shifting ideas of beauty and ugliness.Faces are central to all human social interactions, yet their study has been much overlooked by disability scholars and historians of medicine alike. By examining the main linguistic, visual and material approaches to the face from antiquity to contemporary times, contributors place facial diversity at the heart of our historical and cultural narratives.This cutting-edge collection of essays will be an invaluable resource for humanities scholars working across history, literature and visual culture, as well as modern practitioners in education and psychology.

This Open Access book provides a new understanding of the meanings and motivations behind the wearing of beards, moustaches and whiskers, and their associated practices and practitioners. Concerning Beards offers an important new long-term perspective on health and the male body in British society. It argues that the male face has long been an important site for the articulation of bodily health and vigour, as well as masculinity.Through an exploration of the history of male facial hair in England, Alun Withey underscores its complex meanings, medical implications and socio-cultural significance from the mid-17th to the early 20th century. Herein, he charts the gradual shift in concepts of facial hair and shaving - away from ‘formal’ medicine and practice - towards new concepts of hygiene and personal grooming.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Wellcome Trust.This book is part of the Facialities series, which explores the social, cultural and political significance of the face in human history.

What is a face and how does it relate to personhood? Approaching Facial Difference: Past and Present offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the many ways in which faces have been represented in the past and present, focusing on the issue of facial difference and disfigurement read in the light of shifting ideas of beauty and ugliness.Faces are central to all human social interactions, yet their study has been much overlooked by disability scholars and historians of medicine alike. By examining the main linguistic, visual and material approaches to the face from antiquity to contemporary times, contributors place facial diversity at the heart of our historical and cultural narratives.This cutting-edge collection of essays will be an invaluable resource for humanities scholars working across history, literature and visual culture, as well as modern practitioners in education and psychology.