Face/On: Face Transplants and the Ethics of the Other Contributor(s): Pearl, Sharrona (Author) |
|
ISBN: 022646122X ISBN-13: 9780226461229 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $111.87 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2017 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Medical | Surgery - Transplant - Science | History - Philosophy | Ethics & Moral Philosophy |
Dewey: 617.520 |
LCCN: 2016037671 |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.9" W x 9.1" (1.00 lbs) 272 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Are our identities attached to our faces? If so, what happens when the face connected to the self is gone forever--or replaced? In Face/On, Sharrona Pearl investigates the stakes for changing the face-and the changing stakes for the face--in both contemporary society and the sciences. The first comprehensive cultural study of face transplant surgery, Face/On reveals our true relationships to faces and facelessness, explains the significance we place on facial manipulation, and decodes how we understand loss, reconstruction, and transplantation of the face. To achieve this, Pearl draws on a vast array of sources: bioethical and medical reports, newspaper and television coverage, performances by pop culture icons, hospital records, personal interviews, films, and military files. She argues that we are on the cusp of a new ethics, in an opportune moment for reframing essentialist ideas about appearance in favor of a more expansive form of interpersonal interaction. Accessibly written and respectfully illustrated, Face/On offers a new perspective on face transplant surgery as a way to consider the self and its representation as constantly present and evolving. Highly interdisciplinary, this study will appeal to anyone wishing to know more about critical interventions into recent medicine, makeover culture, and the beauty industry. |
Contributor Bio(s): Pearl, Sharrona: - Sharrona Pearl is assistant professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of About Faces: Physiognomy in Nineteenth-Century Britain and editor of Images, Ethics, Technology. |