[lit-ideas] A Brief History of the Smile
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 00:12:15 EDT
In a message dated 9/9/2004 12:00:06 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
These are good questions. We spent this afternoon discussing the varieties
of smiles, locating ourselves in the present anthropologically--I set
students the task of observing how and when and why people smiled.
-----
Well, on the topic of the smile, there's Angus Trumble and his "Short
History of the Smile" -- as reviewed below by amazon.com.
I recall the illustrations in Darwin, "The expression of emotions in man and
animals". As I recall, only primates _smile_ and the _same_ display (show
your teeth) has a totally different meaning in a gorilla (aggressive behaviour)
and a woman.
The idea is that humor (smiling) and 'willingness to fight' and show power
_are_ related. Note that fish don't smile, and the laughing gull is a joke.
Trumble has been presenting his book in a number of venues, including the
British Arts Centre at Yale, New Haven -- the cover of his book features the
Cheshire Cat -- with the smile [as opposed to the smile without the Cheshire
cat].
Cheers,
JL
----
"A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SMILE"
by Angus Trumble
All smiles may be triggered by an "instantaneous chemical reaction in the
brain," but that's where their similarities end, says art historian and
curator
Trumble in this eclectic and engaging look at the phenomenon throughout art
and history and across cultures. He breezily traces the representation of the
smile, from its mild, mask-like expression in early Greek sculpture to its
ever-debated, enigmatic presence on da Vinci's Mona Lisa, to its gaping glory
days in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting. Unabashed tooth display in
formal portraiture was frowned upon right up to the 20th century, when
sufficient progress had been made in the fields of photography and dentistry
to
usher in the wide-mouthed grin. Trumble travels east to explain the Indonesian
smile, often misread by Westerners as unconditionally welcoming, and to
present
the evolutions of the Muslim concept of purdah, "the most obvious form of
modesty or physical concealment," as well as the Japanese custom of
tooth-blackening, which coyly flirted with Oriental notions of "exposing and
concealing." Readers learn that Buddha's transcendent beam represents
intelligence,
compassion and ethereality, while the fleeting appearance of the "Gothic
smile"
in 12th-century Christian iconography is considered a departure from more
characteristic Jesus imagery. Trumble also tackles a bit of science, detailing
the smile's physiological mechanisms; child development, explaining the
involuntary radiance of infants; and trends, examining our celebrity-crazed,
Angelina-lipped pop culture. Since Trumble sets out to tackle "the smile in
the
broadest possible sense," his resulting chronicle, while packed with factoids
and
whimsy (who knew George Washington wore a makeshift bridge of carved
hippopotamus teeth?) feels fun but diffuse.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
About the Author
Angus Trumble is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and of New York
University's Institute of Fine Arts. He has been curator of European paintings
and sculpture at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and is
currently a Fellow of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne
and
Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of History at Adelaide University.
Book Description
A charming chronicle of smiles and smiling throughout history.
It has been said that supreme enlightenment is reflected in the holy smile of
the Buddha. Yet the Victorians thought of open-mouthed smiling as obscene,
and nineteenth-century English and American slang equated "smiling" with
drinking whisky. In A Brief History of the Smile, Angus Trumble deftly weaves
art,
poetry, history, and biology into an intriguing portrait of the many
meanings of the human smile.
Elegantly illustrating his points with emblematic works of art, from
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European paintings to Japanese woodblock
prints,
Trumble explores the nuances of smiling in a variety of cultures and
contexts. But he also asks key questions about the behavioral and psychological
aspects of smiling: Is smiling unique to human beings? When and how does human
smiling become an act of communication? How does smiling foster our attachments
to one another?
Effortlessly mingling erudition, wit, and personal anecdote, Trumble weaves a
seamless interdisciplinary tapestry as he brings his expertise as writer,
historian, and thinker to bear on the art of the smile.
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