Overview
- Publication in the field of social sciences
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Figurationen. Schriften zur Zivilisations- und Prozesstheorie (FIG, volume 12)
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About this book
Barbara Górnicka presents a sociological investigation – both historical and contemporary – into the problems surrounding naked bodies. She draws on her own participation in a nudist swimming club and goes on to study the often very complex and paradoxical emotions that have been associated with nakedness in the Western world for centuries. The book provides answers not only to why we find exposing our naked bodies shameful, but also why we find it sexual and erotic in the first place. It looks beneath taboos surrounding nakedness today and offers a theoretical explanation for their development over time. On the basis of her historical analysis, the author demonstrates that it was not until the late nineteenth or twentieth century that we began to see nudity as erotic.
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Reviews
“In Nakedness, Shame, and Embarrassment: A Long-Term Sociological Perspective, Barbara Górnicka asks why we have connected nakedness to feelings of shame. Drawing on work by Goffman, Freud, and others, she builds a theoretical framework for understanding nudity using Norbert Elias’s theory of civilizing processes. … This book will be of particular interest to those working in the area of sociology of the body.” (Brett Lunceford, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 123 (5), March, 2018)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Dr. Barbara Górnicka completed her doctoral degree in sociology at University College Dublin. She is the Managing Editor of Figurations, the newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation. Her research interests range from sociological theory to sociology of the body, emotions and sexuality.
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Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Nakedness, Shame, and Embarrassment
Book Subtitle: A Long-Term Sociological Perspective
Authors: Barbara Górnicka
Series Title: Figurationen. Schriften zur Zivilisations- und Prozesstheorie
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-15984-9
Publisher: Springer VS Wiesbaden
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-658-15983-2Published: 26 October 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-658-15984-9Published: 13 October 2016
Series ISSN: 2945-8315
Series E-ISSN: 2945-8323
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 195
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations
Topics: Sociology of the Body, Sociological Theory, Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology