The Fat, the Black, the Plain and the Ugly: The Unattractive Body in Early Modern Culture

这本书将探讨丑陋在近代早期英国文学和文化中的表现。它将侧重于通常意义上的丑，即那些被认为没有吸引力的东西，例如衰老的身体，而不是那些变形到怪诞程度的身体或特征。我的研究将根据这一时期出现的现代主体性形式来分析丑的表现。在中世纪早期的自我传统中，外表被认为是内在本质的恰当反映。然而，现代的主体是建立在身体和心灵的二元模型之上的，在这种模型中，外表表面上与内在的自我无关。对近代早期丑的意义变化的研究，为完善这一现代身份模型提供了一种手段。在那个时代的文学中，丑陋的含义变得越来越模糊，然而丑陋作为性格标志的残余意识形态继续与新兴的意识形态一起流传，在这些意识形态中，脸并没有提供通往真实自我的简单途径。丑保留了强大的象征性联想，特别是与女性和其他边缘群体有关。因此，我的研究考察了丑陋的表现，以探索早期现代身份中身体外表的持续、有问题的角色。除了解决现代早期丑陋与身份之间关系的更广泛问题外，该研究还将包括对早期现代文学和文化中被认为丑陋的面孔和身体的详细解读，为知名和不太知名的文学和文化文本提供新的解读。

This book will explore the representation of ugliness in the literature and culture of early modern England. It will focus on ugliness in the ordinary sense of that which is considered unattractive, for example the ageing body, rather than bodies or features that are deformed to the point of being grotesque. My research will analyse representations of ugliness in the light of the emergence of modern forms of subjectivity in this period. Within earlier medieval traditions of the self, external appearance was assumed to be an apt reflection of inner nature. The modern subject, however, was grounded in a dualistic model of body and mind in which outward appearance ostensibly became irrelevant to the self within. An investigation of the changing meanings of ugliness in the early modern period provides a means of refining this model of modern identity. The meanings of ugliness became increasingly opaque in the literature of the era, yet residual ideologies of ugliness as a sign of character continued to circulate alongside emergent ideologies in which the face did not provide easy access to the authentic self. Ugliness retained powerful symbolic associations, particularly in relation to women and other marginalised groups. My research therefore examines representations of ugliness in order to explore the ongoing, problematic role of physical appearance within early modern identities.As well as addressing wider questions of the relationship between ugliness and identity in the early modern era, the study will comprise detailed readings of faces and bodies perceived to be ugly in early modern literature and culture, providing new readings of both well-known and lesser-known literary and cultural texts.