Queer Anatomies

Michael Sappol is Visiting Researcher at Uppsala University, Sweden, and a historian of the visual culture and performance of medicine and science, with a focus on anatomy and the Body. Between 1998 and 2016, he was Historian, Scholar-in-Residence and Exhibition Curator at the National Library of Medicine, USA.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsPart One: The unbearable queerness of anatomyIntroduction1.1.1 A queer ventriloquism act1.1.2 An advisory, an acknowledgmentTheory1.2.1 Queer explains everyone1.2.2 Queer history1.2.3 The gaze and its objects1.2.4 Proliferating views, intensified viewing1.2.5 A­n odd term1.2.6 Default genders of anatomy1.2.7 Homoerotics queered1.2.8 The epistemology of the anatomical closetObjects1.3.1 Mystery men, mute images1.3.2 The mystery penis1.3.3 The penis and medical eyes1.3.4 The closet’s edgePart Two: Connoisseurship, taste and “the beauty of the plate”Gautier2.1.1 Hungry eyes, science and the anatomical mezzotint2.1.2 Anatomical provocations and the sensesCheselden2.2.1 “The beauty of the plate”2.2.2 What is beautiful?2.2.3 Connoisseurial judgment and anatomy2.2.4 Cheselden’s figures2.2.5 Cheselden the man2.2.6 The learning curve2.2.7 Headbutting disputationBetween Men2.3.1 Between men: connoisseurs, collectors and anatomy2.3.2 Conversations and “conversation pieces”2.3.3 Eyes on the connoisseurial gaze2.3.4 Between men: a continuum of attachments2.3.5 Between men: surgical masculinity and objectsPart Three: “Overshadowed by the artist”: Mr Joseph Maclise’s queer anatomyPrologue: Nicolas-Henri Jacob3.1 Medical eyes, surgical handsJoseph Maclise3.2 The mystery of Mr Joseph Maclise3.2.1 Misters Quain and Maclise3.2.2 Queer bedroom scenes3.2.3 Irrelevant penises (a gallery)3.2.4 Touching representation3.2.5 Cascading rhymes3.2.6 The anus compared3.2.7 Maclise’s men: An imaginary confraternity?3.2.8 Race and Maclise’s radical (queer) philosophy of universalist embodiment3.2.9 Heteronormative queer3.2.10 A crucifixion3.2.11 How did Quain and Maclise get on?3.2.12 Comparative anatomies: predecessors, contemporaries3.2.13 The queer figure study3.2.14 The locked atlas and locked closetAppendix3.3 Maclise’s long goodbyeConclusion: The ontology of the anatomical closetBibliographyIndex

Deeply researched and beautifully illustrated … A must read for anyone interested in medical humanities, the visual culture of anatomy and medicine, history of book illustration, history of collecting, queer theory, and/or esthetics.