Description
Book SynopsisNeoliberal Rhetorics and Body Politics: Plastinate Exhibits as Infiltration uses transnational feminist rhetorical analyses to understand how the global force of neoliberalism infiltrates all parts of life from nation-state relationships to individual subject formation. Focusing on the hugely popular and profitable exhibits of preserved, dissected, and posed human bodies and body parts showcased in Body Worlds and BODIESThe Exhibitionplastinate shows offered by the German anatomist Gunther von Hagens and the US company Premier Exhibitionsthe book analyzes how these exhibits offer examples of neoliberalism's ideological reach as they also present a pop-cultural lens through which to understand the scope of that reach. By rhetorically analyzing the details of the exhibits themselves, their political and cultural contexts, their marketing literature and showcased artifacts, and their connection to historical displays of bodies, the book articulates how neoliberalism creates a grand narrat
Trade ReviewPauliny’s book is an excellent addition to a growing spate of rhetorical scholarship on neoliberal economics and culture. Her focus on literal bodies furthers the conversations rhetoricians are having about economics, policy, migration, and immigration by materially situating those conversations “on the body.” Throughout the book, Pauliny demonstrates how the bisecting and presentation of actual cadavers in the BODIES exhibit enacts a type of bodily literacy that adheres to dominant and normalizing discourses, and thus she shows the BODIES exhibit to be an important site for neoliberal rhetorical analysis. -- Jennifer Wingard, University of Houston
Tara Pauliny's book compellingly shows readers how insidious and pervasive neoliberal logic can be, especially when there are state-sponsored values, such as constituting a "healthy" or "ideal citizen's" body, at stake. Neoliberal Rhetorics and Body Politics is a disturbing case study in how globalized capitalism exerts shame and control over both the bodies on display and those that encounter plastinate body exhibits." -- Rebecca S. Richards, St. Olaf College
Table of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Plastination and a History of Bodily Display Chapter 2: Neoliberal Necropolitics: Rhetorics of the Living Dead Chapter 3: For-Profit Pedagogies: Neoliberalism and the Plastinate Marketplace Chapter 4: Rhetorics of Affect and Intimacy: Plastinate Exhibits and the Construction of the Neoliberal Citizen-Subject Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author
