Nakedness, Shame, and Embarrassment

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

   PDF

2. Setting the nude scene

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 13-27

3. Among the naturists

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 29-43

4. From lewd to nude: becoming a naturist

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 45-84

5. The sociogenesis of nudism

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 85-110

6. Natural bodies? Nakedness, eroticisation and shame

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 111-141

7. Nakedness as a theoretical problem

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 143-164

8. Nakedness and the theory of taboo

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 165-178

9. Conclusion

   • Barbara Górnicka

   Pages 179-185

10. Back Matter

    Pages 187-207

    PDF

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.

• Nudity and Shame
• Emotions and civilizing process
• Embarrassment
• Body
• Nakedness in the Western World
• Taboos Surrounding Nakedness

“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)

• School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

  Barbara Górnicka

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. 

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