Barbara Górnicka presents a sociological investigation - both historical and contemporary - into the problems surrounding naked bodies. She draws on her own participation in a nudist swimming club and goes on to study the often very complex and paradoxical emotions that have been associated with nakedness in the Western world for centuries. The book provides answers not only to why we find exposing our naked bodies shameful, but also why we find it sexual and erotic in the first place. It looks beneath taboos surrounding nakedness today and offers a theoretical explanation for their development over time. On the basis of her historical analysis, the author demonstrates that it was not until the late nineteenth or twentieth century that we began to see nudity as erotic. Setting the Nude Scene.- From Lewd to Nude: Becoming a Naturist.- The Sociogenesis of Nudism.- Natural Bodies? Nakedness, Eroticisation and Shame.- Nakedness as a Theoretical Problem.- Nakedness and the Theory of Taboo. Dr. Barbara Górnicka completed her doctoral degree in sociology at University College Dublin. She is the Managing Editor of Figurations, the newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation. Her research interests range from sociological theory to sociology of the body, emotions and sexuality. "In Nakedness, Shame, and Embarrassment: A Long-Term Sociological Perspective, Barbara Górnicka asks why we have connected nakedness to feelings of shame. Drawing on work by Goffman, Freud, and others, she builds a theoretical framework for understanding nudity using Norbert Elias's theory of civilizing processes. ... This book will be of particular interest to those working in the area of sociology of the body." (Brett Lunceford, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 123 (5), March, 2018)
