Thinking the Limits of the Body
Edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Gail Weiss
This collection maps the very best efforts to think the body at its limits. Because the term body encompasses communities (social and political bodies), territories (geographical bodies), and historical texts and ideas (a body of literature, a body of work), Cohen and Weiss seek transdisciplinary points of resonance and divergence to examine how disciplinary metaphors materialize specific bodies, and where these bodies break down and/or refuse prescribed paths. Whereas postmodern theorizations of the body often neglect its corporeality in favor of its cultural construction, this book demonstrates the inseparability of textuality, materiality, and history in any discussion of the body.
Bio
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen is professor of English and dean of humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.