The Body and Everyday Life

by Helen Thomas

In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in the contemporary social study of the body which has raised important theoretical and methodological questions regarding traditional social and cultural analysis. It has also generated corporeal theories that highlight the fluid, shifting, yet situated character of the body in society. In turn, these corporeal theories have implications for social relations in an era of new technologies and global market economies.

"The Body and Everyday Life "offers a lively and comprehensive introduction to the study of the body. It uses case studies in performance practices to examine the key concepts, methods and critical insights gained from this area. It includes sections on:





ethnographies of the body bodies of performance performing gender the ageing performing body.

This book clearly illustrates the complex relationships that exist between the body, society and everyday life, and considers the negative and positive implications for the development of future socio-cultural analysis in the field. It will be an invaluable introduction for students of sociology, body studies, gender studies, dance and performance, and cultural studies.

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2003

Reviews

[Meiver · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review on the works on dance (mostly ballet, modern and post modern dance) - that link the dances histories, practices, aesthetics with theories of the body, feminist theory (like J. Butler's work) - and cultural theorists like Foucault, Derrida, and others.
Looking at gendered practices, bodies, and the gendered performance of dance.
Works on Tango, Samba, Capoeira are reviewed.

[Rebecca]

Finished this mostly and am hesitant to say anything too negative for fear she will one day be in a position to hire me. I appreciate the thorough history that she provides of how various fields have studied the body and agree with her contention that dance studies has a great deal to offer these other disciplines in terms of looking at the body in motion. That said it sometimes felt like an endless and not particularly deep summary of other people's work. The most provocative concepts for me were those around what it means to reconstruct work and the difference between work "as it was," and work "as it is." -- How much of a work is in its choreography, and how much is in its performance. Intriguing stuff. Thanks to my dance studies reading group for making this book more interesting than it otherwise would be.

[Sylvain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much surveying, not enough depth.