The Land of the Hunger Artists
Science, Spectacle and Authority, c.1880–1922

The story of the exhibition of hunger, emaciated bodies and their enormous impact in the public sphere around 1900.

Agustí Nieto-Galan (Author)

9781009379588, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 November 2023

282 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.9 cm, 0.59 kg

'… the sheer weight of commentary on the hunger artist - by onlookers, experts, fiction writers, fasters themselves - suggests that the author is right to link this material to powerful sociocultural trends. As he convincingly shows, the hunger artist exemplifies a dramatic shift from the religious to the secular body; from a confident materialist science to one that, when turning to human subjects, was often ambivalent and uncertain; and from local to global connections in science, commerce, and entertainment. These insights constitute an impressive achievement, even if, as the author concludes, the hunger artist will still demand 'future historical analysis'.' Elizabeth A. Williams, Journal of Modern History

From the 1880s to the 1920s, hunger artists - professional fasters - lived on the fringes of public spectacle and academic experiment. Agustí Nieto-Galan presents the history of this phenomenon as popular urban spectacle and subject of scientific study, showing how hunger artists acted as mediators between the human and the social body. Doctors, journalists, impresarios , artists, and others used them to reinforce their different philosophical views, scientific schools, political ideologies, cultural values, and professional interests. The hunger artists generated heated debates on objectivity and medical pluralism, and fierce struggles over authority, recognition, and prestige. Set on the fringes of the freak show culture of the nineteenth century and the scientific study of physiology laboratories, Nieto-Galan explores the story of the public exhibition of hunger, emaciated bodies, and their enormous impact on the public sphere of their time.

Introduction
1. Geographies
2. Performances
3. Experiments
4. Spirits
5. Elixirs
6. Politics
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]