Publication at Faculty of Humanities |
2020
Abstract
Exhibitions of the so called human curiosities and abnormities belonged to the modern popular culture of the 19th and 20th century Europe. These staged performances of "Giants", "Siamese twins" and "exotic savages" lured their audiences to ponder about the shifting boundaries of what was historically considered ab/normal.
F. Herza analyses the freak show culture in Prague in all its different manifestations since the late 18th to the early 20th centuries.
Based on the historical material, the author hints at the ways in which the imagination of difference and ab/normality circumscribes potential projects of emancipation aiming at transcending social hierarchies and barriers between individuals.