Robert Darby
Biographic Data
| ID | 188671 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert Darby |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert |
| FAMILY NAME | Darby |
| SIGNATURE | DARBY R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Curtin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8960-8439 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Targeting Patients Who Cannot Object? Re-Examining the Case for Non-Therapeutic Infant Circumcision
Recent restatements of the case for routine circumcision of normal male infants and boys typically base their arguments on a range of medical evidence showing circumcision to have a protective effect against certain pathological conditions. It is then assumed that this evidence leads automatically to a clinical recommendation that circumcision should either be “considered” or strongly urged. Closer analysis reveals that the recommendation of infa…
Not Just a Family Historian: Literary Influences on the Fiction of Martin Boyd
The Late Roman military baths of the Wadi Arabah: A survey of recent archaeological work
Archaeological investigation over the past two decades at several Late Roman military sites in the Wadi Arabah has revealed a corpus of bathhouses that share a geographically distinct architectural design. Constructed in the late 3rd – early 4th cent. ce during a short-lived period of economic resurgence and revitalization of regional trade, these small Roman military baths can add much to our understanding of the broader socio-economic and histo…
The Late Roman fort at ‘Ayn Gharandal, Jordan: Interim report on the 2009–2014 field seasons
The site of ‘Ayn Gharandal lies c .70 km north of the Gulf of Aqaba, c .40 km southwest of Petra, and c .200 m west of the mouth of Wadi Gharandal on the E edge of the Wadi Arabah (fig. 1). The ruins lie alongside a paved track running east from the Dead Sea highway. The presence of a spring and small oasis at the mouth of the wadi presumably prompted the first human occupation. Its location controlling an overland pass through the Shara mountain…
Aufidius Priscus, the cohors Secunda Galatarum , and Diocletian’s re-organization of Arabia and Palaestina: The new tetrarchic inscription from ‘Ayn Gharandal
On June 17, 2013, the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project found a large Latin inscription resting face-down directly above the collapsed arch stones of the main gate of the Late Roman fort (figs. 1–2). Once lifted, the inscribed face of the block was found caked with sand, obscuring any details save for the borders of a carved tabula ansata and one or two letters of its text which still bore traces of red paint, to preserve which the stone was …
Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy in the United States: A History of a Medical Treatment
For Americans who think that female genital cutting is a barbarity confined to darkest Africa and parts of the Islamic world, Sarah Rodriguez's detailed history of female circumcision in the United States will come as a revelation and perhaps a shock. In her impressively researched study the author considers the social rationale of such practices and their relationship with changing theories of anatomy, physiology, sexual behaviour and gender rel…
Syphilis 1855 and HIV-Aids 2007: Historical reflections on the tendency to blame human anatomy for the action of micro-organisms
In this paper, I discuss the parallels between responses to syphilis in nineteenth century Britain and HIV/AIDS in contemporary Africa. In each case, an incurable disease connected with sexual behaviour aroused fear, stigmatisation and moralistic responses, as well as a desperate scramble to find an effective means of control. In both cases, circumcision of adult males, and then of children or infants, was proposed as the key tactic. In the ensui…
The British Royal Family’s Circumcision Tradition: Genesis and Evolution of a Contemporary Legend
The birth of Prince William’s son in July 2013 was the occasion for an outpouring of media speculation about the fate of the royal baby’s foreskin. The possibility that he might be circumcised was connected to a purported tradition of circumcision within the British royal family, said to be have been initiated either by Queen Victoria or by George I. In this article, we trace the origins and evolution of these stories and assess their validity. O…
The Banning of Redheap: Sober Facts about an Inflammatory Fiction
The banning of Norman Lindsay's novel Redheap in 1930 was a controversial decision at the time and has been the subject of much commentary by historians, biographers and journalists. Since the 1960s there have been some half dozen contradictory explanations for the decision, ranging from standard operating procedure in the Department of Trade and Customs to the personal intervention of Lindsay's mother. In this paper, I outline the various theori…
Afterword
Objections of a Sentimental Character: The Subjective Dimensions of Foreskin Loss
Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy
A Rose by Any Other Name? Rethinking the Similarities and Differences between Male and Female Genital Cutting
In this article, we offer a critical examination of the tendency to segregate discussion of surgical alterations to the male and female genitals into separate compartments-the first known as circumcision, the second as genital mutilation. We argue that this fundamental problem of definition underlies the considerable controversy surrounding these procedures when carried out on minors, and that it hinders objective discussion of the alleged benefi…
Pathologizing Male Sexuality: Lallemand, Spermatorrhea, and the Rise of Circumcision
Although spermatorrhea as a disease entity and an episode in nineteenth-century medical history has received significant scholarly attention over the past decade, many aspects of its nature, origins, and consequences remain obscure. The aim of this article is to indicate its origins in and links with medical anxiety about masturbation and to discuss the therapies devised to treat the condition. Particular attention is given to the work of Claude-…
A Plague of Paradoxes: Aids, Culture, and Demography in Northern Tanzania
A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain
The Masturbation Taboo and the Rise of Routine Male Circumcision: A Review of the Historiography
There is increasing scholarly interest in the history of routine male circumcision in Anglophone countries, but much disagreement as to whether prevention of masturbation was an important part of this development. A review of the historiography of both the masturbation phobia and the rise of routine circumcision shows that it has been widely accepted since the 1950s that discouraging masturbation was a major reason why doctors, educationists and …
Where Doctors Differ: The Debate on Circumcision as a Protection against Syphilis, 1855-1914
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were two views on the relationship between syphilis and male circumcision: one was that circumcision provided protection against syphilis, another that circumcision was itself a significant source of syphilitic infection. This article reviews this debate, relates the first view to an influential article by Jonathan Hutchinson in 1855 and considers the subsequent use made of his statis…
An Oblique and Slovenly Initiation”: The Circumcision Episode in Tristram Shandy
Research Article| January 01 2003 “An Oblique and Slovenly Initiation”: The Circumcision Episode in Tristram Shandy Robert Darby Robert Darby Independent Scholar Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Eighteenth-Century Life (2003) 27 (1): 72–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-27-1-72 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Robert Darby; “An Oblique and Slovenly Initi…
Captivity and Captivation: Gullivers in Brobdingnag
Book Review| September 01 2003 Captivity and Captivation: Gullivers in Brobdingnag Robert Darby Robert Darby Independent scholar Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Eighteenth-Century Life (2003) 27 (3): 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-27-3-124 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions …
Oscillations on the Hotspur-Falstaff Spectrum: Paul Fussell and the Ironies of War
This article reviews the main arguments of Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory and seeks to retrieve the author’s objectives from the wider problems that have subsequently become the subject of scholarly debate, such as the relation of the war to modernism, and to evaluate the strengths and limitations of his survey. It focuses on the issues of `high diction’ in poetry and rhetoric, the persistence of myth, the dynamics of consolation …
New Theatre and the State: The Ban on Till the Day I Die, 1936-41
It is generally believed that the Commonwealth Government's efforts to ban public performances of Clifford Odet's play Till the Day I Die in 1936 were a response to objections by the German consul and that its policy was an aspect of appeasement. In this paper it is suggested that the government's response was not determined by the consul's protest but by its own desire to curb the activities of the Communist Party. The paper aims to show that th…
Frank Hardy and the Making of Power without Glory
Frank Hardy's famous novel Power Without Glory was printed and published secretly in Melbourne in 1950. The subsequent legal battle, in which Hardy was eventually acquitted of the charge of criminal libel, rivals the Em Malley hoax and the Demidenko affair as Australia's greatest cause celebre
The Penguin and the Man-O’-War Hawk: Joseph Furphy’s Critical Reputation, 1903-1947
Darby examines the early reception of Such is Life to demonstrate that, contrary to previous opinions, those first readers were aware of the hidden plots and appreciated the narrative complexity
A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain
Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy
A Rose by Any Other Name? Rethinking the Similarities and Differences between Male and Female Genital Cutting
In this article, we offer a critical examination of the tendency to segregate discussion of surgical alterations to the male and female genitals into separate compartments-the first known as circumcision, the second as genital mutilation. We argue that this fundamental problem of definition underlies the considerable controversy surrounding these procedures when carried out on minors, and that it hinders objective discussion of the alleged benefi…
Pathologizing Male Sexuality: Lallemand, Spermatorrhea, and the Rise of Circumcision
Although spermatorrhea as a disease entity and an episode in nineteenth-century medical history has received significant scholarly attention over the past decade, many aspects of its nature, origins, and consequences remain obscure. The aim of this article is to indicate its origins in and links with medical anxiety about masturbation and to discuss the therapies devised to treat the condition. Particular attention is given to the work of Claude-…
Where Doctors Differ: The Debate on Circumcision as a Protection against Syphilis, 1855-1914
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were two views on the relationship between syphilis and male circumcision: one was that circumcision provided protection against syphilis, another that circumcision was itself a significant source of syphilitic infection. This article reviews this debate, relates the first view to an influential article by Jonathan Hutchinson in 1855 and considers the subsequent use made of his statis…
Objections of a Sentimental Character: The Subjective Dimensions of Foreskin Loss
Oscillations on the Hotspur-Falstaff Spectrum: Paul Fussell and the Ironies of War
This article reviews the main arguments of Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory and seeks to retrieve the author’s objectives from the wider problems that have subsequently become the subject of scholarly debate, such as the relation of the war to modernism, and to evaluate the strengths and limitations of his survey. It focuses on the issues of `high diction’ in poetry and rhetoric, the persistence of myth, the dynamics of consolation …
The Penguin and the Man-O’-War Hawk: Joseph Furphy’s Critical Reputation, 1903-1947
Darby examines the early reception of Such is Life to demonstrate that, contrary to previous opinions, those first readers were aware of the hidden plots and appreciated the narrative complexity
New Theatre and the State: The Ban on Till the Day I Die, 1936-41
It is generally believed that the Commonwealth Government's efforts to ban public performances of Clifford Odet's play Till the Day I Die in 1936 were a response to objections by the German consul and that its policy was an aspect of appeasement. In this paper it is suggested that the government's response was not determined by the consul's protest but by its own desire to curb the activities of the Communist Party. The paper aims to show that th…
Frank Hardy and the Making of Power without Glory
Frank Hardy's famous novel Power Without Glory was printed and published secretly in Melbourne in 1950. The subsequent legal battle, in which Hardy was eventually acquitted of the charge of criminal libel, rivals the Em Malley hoax and the Demidenko affair as Australia's greatest cause celebre
Oscillations on the Hotspur-Falstaff Spectrum: Paul Fussell and the Ironies of War
This article reviews the main arguments of Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory and seeks to retrieve the author’s objectives from the wider problems that have subsequently become the subject of scholarly debate, such as the relation of the war to modernism, and to evaluate the strengths and limitations of his survey. It focuses on the issues of `high diction’ in poetry and rhetoric, the persistence of myth, the dynamics of consolation …
The Masturbation Taboo and the Rise of Routine Male Circumcision: A Review of the Historiography
There is increasing scholarly interest in the history of routine male circumcision in Anglophone countries, but much disagreement as to whether prevention of masturbation was an important part of this development. A review of the historiography of both the masturbation phobia and the rise of routine circumcision shows that it has been widely accepted since the 1950s that discouraging masturbation was a major reason why doctors, educationists and …
Where Doctors Differ: The Debate on Circumcision as a Protection against Syphilis, 1855-1914
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were two views on the relationship between syphilis and male circumcision: one was that circumcision provided protection against syphilis, another that circumcision was itself a significant source of syphilitic infection. This article reviews this debate, relates the first view to an influential article by Jonathan Hutchinson in 1855 and considers the subsequent use made of his statis…
An Oblique and Slovenly Initiation”: The Circumcision Episode in Tristram Shandy
Research Article| January 01 2003 “An Oblique and Slovenly Initiation”: The Circumcision Episode in Tristram Shandy Robert Darby Robert Darby Independent Scholar Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Eighteenth-Century Life (2003) 27 (1): 72–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-27-1-72 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Robert Darby; “An Oblique and Slovenly Initi…
Captivity and Captivation: Gullivers in Brobdingnag
Book Review| September 01 2003 Captivity and Captivation: Gullivers in Brobdingnag Robert Darby Robert Darby Independent scholar Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Eighteenth-Century Life (2003) 27 (3): 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-27-3-124 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions …
Pathologizing Male Sexuality: Lallemand, Spermatorrhea, and the Rise of Circumcision
Although spermatorrhea as a disease entity and an episode in nineteenth-century medical history has received significant scholarly attention over the past decade, many aspects of its nature, origins, and consequences remain obscure. The aim of this article is to indicate its origins in and links with medical anxiety about masturbation and to discuss the therapies devised to treat the condition. Particular attention is given to the work of Claude-…
A Plague of Paradoxes: Aids, Culture, and Demography in Northern Tanzania
A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain
A Rose by Any Other Name? Rethinking the Similarities and Differences between Male and Female Genital Cutting
In this article, we offer a critical examination of the tendency to segregate discussion of surgical alterations to the male and female genitals into separate compartments-the first known as circumcision, the second as genital mutilation. We argue that this fundamental problem of definition underlies the considerable controversy surrounding these procedures when carried out on minors, and that it hinders objective discussion of the alleged benefi…
Afterword
Objections of a Sentimental Character: The Subjective Dimensions of Foreskin Loss
Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy
The British Royal Family’s Circumcision Tradition: Genesis and Evolution of a Contemporary Legend
The birth of Prince William’s son in July 2013 was the occasion for an outpouring of media speculation about the fate of the royal baby’s foreskin. The possibility that he might be circumcised was connected to a purported tradition of circumcision within the British royal family, said to be have been initiated either by Queen Victoria or by George I. In this article, we trace the origins and evolution of these stories and assess their validity. O…
The Banning of Redheap: Sober Facts about an Inflammatory Fiction
The banning of Norman Lindsay's novel Redheap in 1930 was a controversial decision at the time and has been the subject of much commentary by historians, biographers and journalists. Since the 1960s there have been some half dozen contradictory explanations for the decision, ranging from standard operating procedure in the Department of Trade and Customs to the personal intervention of Lindsay's mother. In this paper, I outline the various theori…
Syphilis 1855 and HIV-Aids 2007: Historical reflections on the tendency to blame human anatomy for the action of micro-organisms
In this paper, I discuss the parallels between responses to syphilis in nineteenth century Britain and HIV/AIDS in contemporary Africa. In each case, an incurable disease connected with sexual behaviour aroused fear, stigmatisation and moralistic responses, as well as a desperate scramble to find an effective means of control. In both cases, circumcision of adult males, and then of children or infants, was proposed as the key tactic. In the ensui…
The Late Roman military baths of the Wadi Arabah: A survey of recent archaeological work
Archaeological investigation over the past two decades at several Late Roman military sites in the Wadi Arabah has revealed a corpus of bathhouses that share a geographically distinct architectural design. Constructed in the late 3rd – early 4th cent. ce during a short-lived period of economic resurgence and revitalization of regional trade, these small Roman military baths can add much to our understanding of the broader socio-economic and histo…
The Late Roman fort at ‘Ayn Gharandal, Jordan: Interim report on the 2009–2014 field seasons
The site of ‘Ayn Gharandal lies c .70 km north of the Gulf of Aqaba, c .40 km southwest of Petra, and c .200 m west of the mouth of Wadi Gharandal on the E edge of the Wadi Arabah (fig. 1). The ruins lie alongside a paved track running east from the Dead Sea highway. The presence of a spring and small oasis at the mouth of the wadi presumably prompted the first human occupation. Its location controlling an overland pass through the Shara mountain…
Aufidius Priscus, the cohors Secunda Galatarum , and Diocletian’s re-organization of Arabia and Palaestina: The new tetrarchic inscription from ‘Ayn Gharandal
On June 17, 2013, the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project found a large Latin inscription resting face-down directly above the collapsed arch stones of the main gate of the Late Roman fort (figs. 1–2). Once lifted, the inscribed face of the block was found caked with sand, obscuring any details save for the borders of a carved tabula ansata and one or two letters of its text which still bore traces of red paint, to preserve which the stone was …
Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy in the United States: A History of a Medical Treatment
For Americans who think that female genital cutting is a barbarity confined to darkest Africa and parts of the Islamic world, Sarah Rodriguez's detailed history of female circumcision in the United States will come as a revelation and perhaps a shock. In her impressively researched study the author considers the social rationale of such practices and their relationship with changing theories of anatomy, physiology, sexual behaviour and gender rel…
Targeting Patients Who Cannot Object? Re-Examining the Case for Non-Therapeutic Infant Circumcision
Recent restatements of the case for routine circumcision of normal male infants and boys typically base their arguments on a range of medical evidence showing circumcision to have a protective effect against certain pathological conditions. It is then assumed that this evidence leads automatically to a clinical recommendation that circumcision should either be “considered” or strongly urged. Closer analysis reveals that the recommendation of infa…
Not Just a Family Historian: Literary Influences on the Fiction of Martin Boyd
History (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Art (9 works) · History (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Genital Health and Disease (7 works) · Ancient history (5 works)