CONCLUSIONS: CONSTRUCTING THE (NAKED) SOCIAL BODY The Transparent Man stands upon a platform, looking upwards to the sky, his arm erected towards the air, as if he’s immersing himself in the light of the sun. He was first unveiled to the public in 1930, a proud recognition of the German hygiene movements. In his transparency,… Continue Reading
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THE SOCIAL BODY The nudists’ efforts to create a fit and racially pure Germany were partly propelled by the strong perception of crisis and the larger Lebensreform movements. It is difficult to separate the ideological basis of nudism from its contextual relationship with the social affairs and political instability that rocked Wilelmine and Weimar Germany;… Continue Reading
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THE NAKED BODY Nacktkultur emerged out of the larger Lebensreform movements of the late 1890s, which sought to improve urban-industrial societies by aiming to expose, and return, the body to a more natural way of living. The popularity of Lebensreform resided in its holistic interpretation of living, one which sought to unite the shattered units… Continue Reading
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THE HISTORY OF THE BODY Before continuing with my examination of the ideology of Nacktkultur and its respective relationships with the social body, I will first briefly outline what constitutes as a history of the body. Scholarship based upon the works of Foucault has emphasized the role of the body as a vehicle of social… Continue Reading
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I wrote this paper for a course on the Philosophy of Nudity at IHPST, directed by Professor Paul Thompson. I truly enjoyed the course, particularly how it introduced me to different perspectives of nudity and nudism as cultural artifacts. “Nudity is a form of dress.” John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972) INTRODUCTION: THE EMERGENCE OF… Continue Reading
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The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means loss of language, sets thoughts astir, and keeps us in the intellectual company of man. Helen Keller, in a letter to J. Kerr Love, as told in The Deaf Child… Continue Reading
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Conclusions: Disputes and Discourses Whether or not the Wallis-Holder dispute was the central factor, the Royal Society saw a remarkable decline in the focus on language projects as well as instruction for deaf-mutes. Mullett cites several factors that may have contributed to this decline, including the lack of physiological information on deafness, the rise of… Continue Reading
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First off, my apologies in the delay in publishing this edition. As I mentioned on Twitter, I’ve been ill and pretty much bedridden; and unlike the wonderful Sasha, my two dogs Lucy and Gizmo are too lazy and would rather curl up and sleep beside me than take upon my duties. A few weeks ago,… Continue Reading
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A group of history students at the University of Ottawa prepared a Prezi based on their research in the collections at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, under the supervision of David Pantalony. This is an excellent way to integrate artifacts into the study of history, encouraging group work and fun at the same time!… Continue Reading
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De loquea While endeavours to create a universal language that was unambiguous and easy to learn were mainly directed toward the application of philosophical principles as outlined by Descartes and Bacon, some philosophers applied these schemes to design educational methods for reading and writing. Although there is a significant lack of literature probing analysis… Continue Reading
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A Society’s Interest A fascination with language in the seventeenth century was spearheaded by philosophers participating in various linguistic projects, some of which questioned the origin of language, delved into the art of cryptography, debated methods of language teaching, and sought to construct a language that would serve as a universal means of communication.[1] The… Continue Reading
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By Speech and Signs Historian Lennard Davis has emphasized that the deaf person has historically served as an icon for complex intersections of subject, class, and the body.[1] This construction and awareness of the connection to language relied on deafness becoming visible for the first time as an articulation in a set of practices. According… Continue Reading
From the Hands of Quacks 