A richly dressed woman glares regally
out of her portrait. She is the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia. Her
right hand pinches a miniature of her father, Philip II of Spain,
while the left rests on the head of a woman whose small stature,
advanced age and simple clothes place her in absolute opposition to
her taller mistress.
The smaller woman stands slightly behind the
larger figure, her hands full with two tiny, wriggling monkeys. She
is Isabella’s dwarf, Magdalena Ruiz.
BUY THIS BOOK, CLICK BELOW:
In Lynne Vallone’s persuasive
reading, the dwarf serves as a foil to all her royal owner must be if
Habsburg rule is to continue: noble, privileged, mature,
reproductive. The women literally embody complex codes of similarity
and difference; their bodies carefully styled to visually communicate
ownership and power.
Even the monkeys have a part to play,
advertising Spanish possession of vast Amazonian territories. Like
the monkeys, Magdalena is Isabella’s pet and must work for her
owner. When extrapolated across Western cultural history, the
painting’s power relations encapsulate the message of Big and
Small – that extraordinary bodies are created, configured and
controlled by the “ordinary” figures who outnumber them.
Big and Small is a compelling and
innovative account of why size matters. It is one of the very first
books – perhaps even the very first – to examine size as
variously a sign of personhood, a marker of difference and a channel
for social anxieties.
Often, size is all three simultaneously.
Thoughtful depictions of “people big and people small” reveal
that bodily dimension is deeply, ineradicably engrained in Western
society’s self-perception. They make for a significant achievement
and a remarkable read.
Vallone roves through art, literature
and science to offer striking images of bodies under the microscope,
near the spotlight or accompanied by the fairground organ. Magdalena
was far from the only court dwarf, while the “dwarf marriage”
between Charles Stratton and Lavinia Warren delighted fashionable
Manhattan in 1863.
Tales of extraordinary creation demonstrate how
society regularly uses size to mould anxiety into human form.
Alchemists conjure thumblings with heretical recipes; at the other
end of the scale, giant robots are pieced together with the guide of
an atomic blueprint.
However, what sets this apart from
other considerations of folklore or the freak is both the
comprehensive research and a commitment to exploring bodily
significance both then and now.
The imperialist capture and ruthless
exploitation of the “pygmy” Ota Benga, for example, is shown to
be both the result of certain Victorian race myths, and the source of
others. Placing each extraordinary individual at the centre of a
complex social web shows sensitivity to the injustices perpetrated on
bodies deemed either insufficient or excessive.
The case of Anamarie
Martinez-Regino, removed from her family due to concerns over her
weight, is a breathtaking demonstration of society’s entitled
attitude to bodies that do not fit.
Buy This Book, CLICK BELOW:
Original review on: www.timeshighereducation.com
No comments:
Post a Comment