The Consuming Body

This book provides a fascinating examination of the relationship between consumption, the idea of the body and the formation of the self. In tracing these connections, The Consuming Body develops a profile of individuality in the late twentieth century - in both its bodily and mental aspects.

Pasi Falk offers a major synthesis and critical assessment of the debates surrounding the body, the self and contemporary consumer culture. He explores two fundamental issues for current social theory - the delineation of modern consumption and our understanding of the nature of embodiment. In the course of his argument he examines both metaphors and anthropologies of consumption and discusses key questions raised by representation in advertising and pornography. At the same time, the book highlights the body's historically changing position in various cultural orders.

Concerned throughout with the contingent nature of definitions of the body, as well as with the culturally and historically specific notions of the self and its boundaries, this book posits a new theory of the consuming body in relation to the embodied human condition.

The Consuming Body will be essential reading for students and academics in cultural studies, sociology, anthropology and philosophy.