Product Description

Compellingly demonstrates the relationship between sensory and gender orders, highlighting the gender politics behind such sensory constructs as the male gaze and the female touch.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3756207 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
"Classen's achievement is impressive...."
-"American Historical Review
"[A] fresh contribution to the literature on gender and the body in religion."
-"Religious Studies Review
"The common thread that ties these subjects [cosmology, gender, and aesthetics] together is Classen's excellent historical overview of sensory symbolism....Classen provides a rich and evocative volume."
-L. A. Dawe, "Social & Behavioral Sciences
"With the blend of erudition and elegance we have now come to expect, Constance Classen's "The Color of Angels does much to restore the history of the senses to its proper importance."
-Roy Porter, Wellcome Institute
"It is a solid and imaginative contribution to both the history of the senses as well as to feminist scholarship from the middles ages up to the rise of modernism."
-Sander L. Gilman, University of Chicago

From the Publisher
A history of the senses
Constance Classen invites us to explore whether or not angels have a color, or even a scent; to imagine the senses as mystics and artists have through the centuries. From Hildegard of Bingen to modern experiments helping the blind to "see" through touch, Classen paints a fascinating tryptic of the cosmology, gender and aesthetics of the senses. The Color of Angels uncovers the rich sensory symbolism of the past, showing how it lingers on in modern perceptions. It describes a historical hierarchy of the senses in which the politics of gender influence the social construction of sensory meaning in different periods and domains. According to this system, the male gaze penetrates while the scent of a women permeates; masculine scholarship is contrasted with the tactility of feminine home-making. Yet even though art has often reinforced these categories, it also retains the capacity to challenge them. Symbolists and Surrealists bridge the gap between the senses, creating sweet colors and fragrant songs. Despite the gendered history of the senses, Classen concludes that the experiences of those marginalized by society--including women and the blind--can form the basis for developing a new, more vital sensory aesthetic.

From the Back Cover
The Colour of Angels explores the rich symbolism of the senses which animated the cosmos before the modern scientific view of the world came to dominate, revealing the gender politics behind such sensory constructs as the male gaze and the female touch and tracing the development of a hierarchy of the senses from medieval cosmology to the advent of computer graphics. The book is divided into three parts; cosmology, gender and aesthetics and uses a wide variety of examples, from the sensuous religious visions of the middle ages to nineteenth-century art movements. Through its focus on the social construction of sensory meaning in different periods and domains, The Colour of Angels not only contributes to a history of sensibilities, but compellingly demonstrates the relationship between sensory and gender orders, revealing a crucial but previously unexplored area of women's history.

Customer Reviews

Interesting! (up to a point)
I have been reading Classen out of academic interest. Mostly because her books deal with areas very few other people seem to touch. I can highly recommend 'Worlds of sense' and `Aroma'. Very, very good books about things you've never thought of.

Color of Angels also is one such book. It deals with 'worldviews' on perceptions of the divine. Especially the first half is very readable, highly enjoyable and refreshing. However, at a certain moment I happened to be sitting in Cambridge, on the shores of the Cam, thinking: Yeah, this is all nice and interesting, but so what? In other words, at a certain moment the book lost its fascination. For me that point was the mediaeval details, however interesting, yet less stimulating.

Please understand me well. This is not a bad book. I think for those interested in the topic it might be an exceptionally well crafted, highly readable, well constructed and substantiated book. For me it was a very enjoyable distraction. Up to a point.