Faces

A Cultural History

David Le Breton (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

296 Seiten

2026
Polity Press (Verlag)
978-1-5095-6866-6 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Juni 2026)
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The face: our most distinguishing feature, but one which remains alien to us and which hides as much as it reveals. The slightest variation in characateristics, their volume, lines and intensity, is enough to distinguish one physiognomy from another, and to determine identity and draw a line between one person and another. In the moral hierarchy of bodily geography, the face embodies the highest value. It is the privileged site of love and hate, and judgements of beauty or ugliness are inscribed within it. It is so highly valued that any change, any visible trace of injury, is a tragey, akin to an attack on one's identity. An individual's unique face corresponds to the uniqueness of his or her personal adventure. It is also the vehicle through which we produce and manage our daily interactions with others. The face precedes individuals, announces their presence, indicates whether they are known and displays their possible intentions. An integral part of the human body, the face is a part like no other.

David Le Breton offers a wide-ranging cultural history and anthropology of the face, from the mirror and the veil, the portrait and the invention of photography to cosmetic surgery, the selfie, facial recognition and AI. He reflects on how age leaves its mark on our fragile faces and how the symbolic violence perpetrated by racism expresses itself in the refusal to grant a person the dignity of a face. He reflects too on how the proliferation of faces in the age of the selfie renders the face banal, destroys its aura and weakens the social bondL seldies proliferate in a world where face-to-face encounters are becoming increasingly rare, as individuals become monads focused on their phones. We are less and less together and more and more side by side, fragmented, our eyes glued to our screens, no longer looking at each other.

This magisterial book will appeal to anyone interested in the face and the many roles it has played in our history, culture and social life, and in how these roles might be changing today in our contemporary digital age.

David Le Breton is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Strasbourg

Introduction

The Birth of a Book – Overview
1.The Invention of the Face
The Impossible Face of God – The Individualization of the Body and the Face – The Social Celebration of the Face: The Portrait – The Mirror – Photography: The Democratization of Faces – Anthropometry – The Invention of the Face – The Selfie or the Banalization of the Face – Disappearance of the Face in Connection – Facial Recognition

2. Physiognomy or the Face as Confession
The Half-Telling of the Face – Treatises on Physiognomy – The Physiognomic Sensation – A Science of the Face? – The Stigmata of the "Born Criminal"

3. The Racialization of the Face. When the Other is No Longer Quite Human
When the Face Becomes the Race – Color Line, Shadow Line – Black Ugliness – Jewish Ugliness – Skin Lightening – Ethnic Surgery

4. The Face-to-Face of Social Relations
The Symbolism of the Face – Face to Face – From the Face to the Individual – Interaction and The Gaze – Eye Contact – The Stare – The Evil Eye – Medusa's Gaze

5. The Face is an Other
Ambivalence – Asymmetry – The Face is an Other – Imaginaries of the Double – Resemblance – Twinship – Recognizing Faces – Losing the Sense of Face

6. The Many Guises of the Face
Grimacing – From Impassivity to "Facecrime" – Face Painting – Wearing Makeup – Veiling – Masking – Incognito – Masks in the Time of Covid-19

7. Modifying the Form of the Face
Getting a New Look – The Eternal "Fair Sex"

8. Aging: When We No Longer Recognize Ourselves
Aging is a Feeling – Aging in the Eyes of Others – Losing One’s Face of Reference – The Gender of Aging

9. Queering or Inventing One's Own Face
Gender Fluidity – Queering the Face – Passing

10. Faces and Value
The Power of Appeal – The Paradoxes of the Face's Eminence – Beauty as Disinterestedness – The Privileges of Beauty – The Gender of Attraction – From Beauty to Sex Appeal – Ugliness

11. The Face and the Shoah

12. Disfigurement: A Handicap of Appearance
A Sign of Identity – Breaking the Social Mirror – Face Transplants

Afterword

Bibliography

Erscheint lt. Verlag	26.6.2026
Übersetzer	Carmen Ruschiensky
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
ISBN-10	1-5095-6866-2 / 1509568662
ISBN-13	978-1-5095-6866-6 / 9781509568666
Zustand	Neuware