Sander L. Gilman
ARE FACES US? [engl.]
In a world in which people are judged by their exterior, changing outward appearance seems to have a liberating effect. This was thesis Sander L. Gilman postulated to introduce his standard work Making the Body Beautiful. A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. In Hamburg the humanities scholar and professor for psychiatry, who also researches in the areas of Judaism, racism and physiognomy, will speak about the fascination of face transplants. Long a motif in literature and film, the history of modern facial surgery – from the “nose job” through to the full face transplant – demands that we re-question the notion that the face reflects our sense of identity. Are “we” our faces? Does the face show our authentic self, even beyond death? What do we see in the mirror – ourselves or the image we have of ourselves?
Sander L. Gilman studied German literature and history at Munich and Berlin. He is distinguished professor of the liberal arts and sciences as well as professor of psychiatry at Emory University, Atlanta in the US. He is the author of numerous works on German literature since the 18th century, on themes concerning the history of culture, sexuality, and psychiatry, on anti-Semitism and Jewish studies, racism and physiognomy – in particular of the mentally ill. He is the author of the standard histories of cosmetic surgery. www.psp.emory.edu