What is a body? Deconstructing Western conceptions of the body

What is it about?

This paper proposes to deconstruct the notion of "body" such as conceived by Western philosophy. We chose to focus on the questions of translation and transmission: what does it mean to communicate a specific, singular bodily experience? What is lost, what is transformed in the process? And what are the political, sexual, and metaphysical implications of this? Based on readings of Sarah Kofman and Anne-Emmanuelle Berger, we also try to show that Jacques Derrida's thinking of the body can be interpreted as a protestation against the Western philosophical-theological machinery of the Eucharist: Derrida "points to a heterogeneous corps that cannot simply be spiritualized or symbolized, assimilated and incorporated by the Christian sacrificial machine of the Eucharist, nor by the philosophical tradition with which it shares many traits".

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Photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash

Photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash

Why is it important?

It is important to think the body and bodily experience outside of the Western conceptions that reduce the body to a physical, 'lived-in' flesh. These conceptions are indexed on religious and philosophical presuppositions that deserve to be deconstructed because they are a source of confusion, and because they erase the multiplicity and heterogeneity of bodily experiences.

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