Book Section
Alberica Bazzoni
Federica Buongiorno
Federica Buongiorno
Introduction
Performing Embodiment
This introduction rethinks embodiment as a performative and relational process that challenges the legacy of mind-body dualism. Drawing on phenomenology, the authors present the lived body as a body-subject whose perception and knowledge emerge through situated, kinaesthetic engagement with the world. Embodiment is thus understood not as a static condition but as an ongoing choreography of affect, language, and social interaction. The introduction then presents the three interconnected domains explored in the volume: language as an embodied and world-making practice; dance and somatic choreography as paradigms of affective and temporal becoming; and socio-political norms (particularly gender and academic structures) as disciplinary performances inscribed on and enacted by bodies. Together, the essays advance an interdisciplinary framework in which embodiment appears as a dynamic process of co-constitution between bodies, world, and social power.
Keywords: embodiment; performing; mind-body dualism; phenomenology; social norms; affect; language
| Title |
Introduction
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| Subtitle |
Performing Embodiment
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| Author(s) |
Alberica Bazzoni
Federica Buongiorno
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
This introduction rethinks embodiment as a performative and relational process that challenges the legacy of mind-body dualism. Drawing on phenomenology, the authors present the lived body as a body-subject whose perception and knowledge emerge through situated, kinaesthetic engagement with the world. Embodiment is thus understood not as a static condition but as an ongoing choreography of affect, language, and social interaction. The introduction then presents the three interconnected domains explored in the volume: language as an embodied and world-making practice; dance and somatic choreography as paradigms of affective and temporal becoming; and socio-political norms (particularly gender and academic structures) as disciplinary performances inscribed on and enacted by bodies. Together, the essays advance an interdisciplinary framework in which embodiment appears as a dynamic process of co-constitution between bodies, world, and social power.
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
April 28, 2026
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| Subject |
embodiment
performing
mind-body dualism
phenomenology
social norms
affect
language
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| Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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| Language |
en-GB
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| page start |
1
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| page end |
11
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| Source |
Performing Embodiment: Choreographies of Affect, Language, and Social Norms, ed. by Alberica Bazzoni and Federica Buongiorno, Cultural Inquiry, 39 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2026), pp. 1–11
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Publication scheduled for 28 April 2026
References
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- Buongiorno, Federica, ‘Embodiment, Disembodiment, and Re-embodiment in the Construction of the Digital Self’, Humana.Mente, 12.36 (2019), pp. 310–30 <https://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/HM/article/view/290> [accessed 10 November 2025]
- Burns, Jennifer, Fragments of Impegno: Interpretations of Commitment in Contemporary Italian Narrative 1980–2000, Italian Perspectives, 9 (Legenda, 2002)
- Butler, Judith, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge, 1990)
- Farr, William, Sara Price, and Carey Jewitt, ‘An Introduction to Embodiment and Digital Technology Research: Interdisciplinary Themes and Perspectives’, National Centre for Research Methods Working Paper (2012) <https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/2257/> [accessed 10 November 2025]
- Heidegger, Martin, The Basic Problems of Phenomenology [1975], trans. by Albert Hofstadter (Indiana University Press, 1988) <https://doi.org/10.2979/1179.0>
- Husserl, Edmund, Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology [1931], trans. by Dorion Cairns (Springer, 2012).
- Iida, Fumiya, and others, eds, Embodied Artificial Intelligence (Springer, 2004) <https://doi.org/10.1007/b99075>
- Keat, Russell, ‘Merleau-Ponty and the Phenomenology of the Body’, unpublished paper delivered at the Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University (May 1982) <https://www.russellkeat.net/admin/papers/51.pdf> [accessed 10 November 2025]
- Ma, Helen L., and others, ‘Embodying Cognitive Ethology’, Theory & Psychology, 33.1 (2023), pp. 42–58 <https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221126165>
- Maturana, Humberto, and Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding [1987], trans. by Robert Paolucci (Shambhala, 1998)
- Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phenomenology of Perception [1945], trans. by Donald A. Landes (Routledge, 2012)
- Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Institution and Passivity: Course Notes from the Collège de France (1954–1955), trans. by Leonard Lawlor and Heath Massey (Northwestern University Press, 2010)
- Varela, Francisco, Eleanor Rosch, and Evan Thompson, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1992) <https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6730.001.0001>
Cite as:
Alberica Bazzoni and Federica Buongiorno, ‘Introduction: Performing Embodiment’, in Performing Embodiment: Choreographies of Affect, Language, and Social Norms, ed. by Alberica Bazzoni and Federica Buongiorno, Cultural Inquiry, 39 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2026), pp. 1-11 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-39_01>