Alanna Skuse Knihy

Many of the ways in which medical practitioners and lay people imagined cancer - as a 'woman's disease' or a 'beast' inside the body - remain strikingly familiar, and they helped to make this disease a byword for treachery and cruelty in discussions of religion, culture and politics.

This pioneering account offers a new perspective on debates concerning embodiment in the early modern period, examining the varied experiences of those who underwent surgical alteration as a starting point for discussing questions of personal integrity, morality, and resurrection. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.