Author Description

<p>How can the dichotomy between body and language be overcome by means of the performing arts? What does the art of performing contribute to philosophical, ethical, and political thinking today?</p><p>This book is a study of the body and language on the stage. Inspired by contemporary artistic research and performance philosophy, Esa Kirkkopelto proposes a new understanding of embodiment that has no direct counterpart in existing philosophies of the body, in natural science, or in everyday experience. The way a performer imagines their body in performance breaks with body–language dichotomies, so language and body can be conceived as co-original phenomena, beyond their anthropomorphic framing. Once we recognize the native relationship between body and language, we can acquire an evolutive perspective which reaches beyond ontological or transcendental paradigms, towards a more linguistic and corporeal coexistence of diverse beings.</p><p>This book shows how radically different the universe appears when conceived through the performing body. It addresses artists and philosophers alike.</p>