Abstract

Examining paintings, digestion, machines, spa waters, and kissing as cultural forms, and interweaving these examinations with new readings of literary and philosophical texts, Cottom locates a new focus on the inner working of the body, a "visceral turn" in Enlightenment thinking. The most radical image of this visceral turn appeared in the figure of the cannibal - a figure who, in popular imagination, bore a striking resemblance to the image of the philosopher.".