Foreign Bodies

Across five essays, A. David Napier examines how something from outside a culture can become part of its identity, taking up the idea that the alien is absorbed into the body, both literally and figuratively. His case studies move from ancient Greek art to Baroque Italian painting and sculpture, and on to Western postmodern works. He also reads symbols as diverse as Balinese views of the cosmos and the use of the body as a sign in modern medicine.