An examination of how the body--its organs, limbs, and viscera--were represented in the literature and culture of early modern Europe. This provocative volume demonstrates, the symbolism of body parts challenge our assumptions about "the body" as a fundamental Renaissance image of self, society, and nation.

Carla Mazzio and David Hillman are both Teaching Fellows in the Department of English at Harvard.

I. Introduction: Individual Parts I. Subjecting the Part 2. Members Only 3. Out of Joint 4. Sins of the Tongue 5. Visceral Knowledge 6. Nervous Tension II. Sexing the Part 7. Is the Fundament a Grave? 8. Missing the Breast 9. The Rediscovery of the Clitoris 10. Taming the Basilisk III. Divining the Part II. Mutilation and Meaning 12. Fables of the Belly in Early Modern England 13. Sacred Heart and Secular Brain 14. God's handy worke IV. Parting Words 15. Footnotes