Fattys’ Cyclopaedia

This volume is a compendium of influential fat theorists from the past three decades. I use “fat theory” as a unifying term for those writers who have in common a critical investment in articulating the psychological, social, political or medical signifiers within overweight bodies. My selection of texts is based on the work’s importance upon the field, and of those fat theorists who have shaped and challenged this emerging critical discipline.

Fat theory is eclectic and consists of writers with backgrounds in academia, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, sociology, feminism and political activism. The intellectual diversity has created a field of ever-expanding and often contradictory ideological positions that continually redefine the conceptualisation of ‘fat.’

Fattys’ Cyclopaedia traces the history of fat theory and its ever-changing critical landscape. It summarises each writer’s arguments then cross-references to intersections or disputations within the field. I trust this web of ideas will provide a solid background to fat theory, amply tracking the shifting sequence of historical positions that have informed contemporary ‘fat’ thought.