This is a fascinating examination of the relationship between consumption, the idea of the body and the formation of the self. In tracing these connections, The Consuming Body develops a profile of individuality in the late twentieth century - in both its bodily and mental aspects. Pasi Falk offers a major synthesis and critical assessment of the debates surrounding the body, the self and contemporary consumer culture. He explores two fundamental issues for modern social theory - the delineation of modern consumption and the body′s historically changing position in various cultural orders. In the course of his argument he examines both metaphors of consumption and investigates the issues of representation in advertising and pornography.
`I consider this book a remarkable achievement. Sophisticated in its use of sociological, anthropological and critical theory, [it] also successfully conveys the direct tangible experience of corporality and the senses. Falk′s original, insightful book sets the study of the body onto a new plane′ - Roy Porter, The Wellcome Institute
