The embodied imagination : affect, bodies, experience
This thesis offers a critical interrogation of the relationship between and co-production of bodies, texts and spaces. It introduces and develops the concept of the embodied imagination through the philosophy of Spinoza and recent Spinozist thinkers as a way of informing a materialist account of the production of experience. The embodied imagination, as material and affective, can supplement a Foucauldian account of subjectivation through its ability to offer an account of experience âafter the subjectâ â of experience as the surface effects of the movement of affect through and across bodies, texts and spaces that are productive of transsubjective social imaginaries. This can contribute to a fuller account of subject production and to a formulation of embodied politics based on a political analytic of feeling. These conceptual arguments are mobilised through exemplars from ethnographic fieldwork based on the geographical concerns of landscape, embodied practice and place imaginaries. In particular, I point to specific outdoor practices, techniques and regimes that, in their imbrication in certain imaginaries, contribute to a sense of place and belonging. Through a âthoroughly materialistâ approach
Dawney, Leila Alexandra
Spinoza ; affect ; cultural theory ; embodiment ; imagination ; nonrepresentational theory
The embodied imagination : affect, bodies, experience. This thesis offers a critical interrogation of the relationship between and co-production of bodies, texts and spaces. It introduces and develops the concept of the embodied imagination through the philosophy of Spinoza and recent Spinozist thinkers as a way of informing a materialist account of the production of experience. The embodied imagination, as material and affective, can supplement a Foucauldian account of subjectivation through its ability to offer an account of experience âafter the subjectâ â of experience as the surface effects of the movement of affect through and across bodies, texts and spaces that are productive of transsubjective social imaginaries. This can contribute to a fuller account of subject production and to a formulation of embodied politics based on a political analytic of feeling. These conceptual arguments are mobilised through exemplars from ethnographic fieldwork based on the geographical concerns of landscape, embodied practice and place imaginaries. In particular, I point to specific outdoor practices, techniques and regimes that, in their imbrication in certain imaginaries, contribute to a sense of place and belonging. Through a âthoroughly materialistâ approach
embody imagination affect body experience offer_critical interrogation relationship production body texts space introduces develop concept embodied imagination philosophy spinoza recent thinker way inform materialist account production experience embody imagination material affective supplement foucauldian account ability offer_account experience_subject experience surface effect movement affect across body texts space productive social imaginary contribute fuller account subject production formulation embody politics base political analytic feeling conceptual argument mobilise exemplar ethnographic fieldwork base geographical concern landscape embody practice place imaginary particular point specific outdoor practice technique regime certain imaginary contribute sense_place belonging thoroughly materialist