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‘Eene regte ziel in een krom lighaam’
Een nieuwe kijk op kleine mensen in de achttiende eeuw
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: De Achttiende Eeuw, Volume 55, Issue 2023, sep. 2023, p. 137 - 158
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- 01 sep. 2023
Samenvatting
Eighteenth-century Britain and the Low Countries witnessed a shift in how small people were approached by the cultural elite. The age-old prejudice that physical disabilities were accompanied by mental disorders was increasingly challenged by medical professors. In educational and literary works, writers tried to instill sympathy for the living conditions of small people. The authors emphasized that, despite their physique, they should be regarded as ordinary human beings. By exciting feelings of empathy and sympathy they tried to combat the discrimination and prejudices that surrounded them. While those biases towards little people did not dissipate completely, eighteenth-century discourses clearly showed how popular perceptions were critically examined.