We are seeking contributions to an interdisciplinary volume exploring an often neglected aspect of the history of the body: the interrelation between dietetic, digestive, and excretory processes/practices and the constitution of the self. Although much recent work on the body focuses on sexuality, usually in a strictly genital sense, academic and self-help medical texts reveal an abiding focus on internal processes that, while often related to sexual desire, are sometimes depicted as exercising an even more pivotal role in the creation of self-identity. For instance, many are familiar with Foucault's observation that sexuality in ancient Greece was embedded in a range of dietetic practices that transformed desire into a matter of correct use rather than subordination to a moral code; yet whereas over time sexuality's status as a technique of the self was largely eclipsed by its function as an object of morality and knowledge, dietetics has persisted as a strategic ground for the exercise of self-mastery and the formation of character. Nineteenth century observations by Victor Hugo, who observed that "the colon is king," and by Brillat-Savarin, who divided the human world into the regular, the diarrhetic, and the constipated, are only the most explicit assertions of the continuing belief in the predominance of digestive processes over the entire organism.

As one might expect, the possibilities for exploring such issues culturally are virtually endless. European health movements, and a widening interest in physical culture and bodybuilding, studied the interior body with both quasi-scientific and religious zeal. Mastication, digestion, bowel movements, sanitation and hygiene, were integral in fashioning the individual as much as social body. For instance, strongman Eugen Sandow promoted physical culture as a remedy for constipation and indigestion, connecting it to the strength of the nation and the British Empire. We seek essays from a variety of disciplines, national cultures, and time periods, so long as they address the central problematic of the book: the relationship between alimentary and dietetic processes/practices and the constitution/maintenance of the self (whether conceived individually or in relation to the body politic). It is also expected that matters of gender, class, race/ethnicity, and other vectors of difference will figure into these essays to some degree.

Although at this stage topics are wide open, essays on the following would be welcome: