Alumnus, Interdisciplinary Studies
Thesis Title: Writing the Body: Kafka, Textuality, and Contemporary Theories of Embodiment
About
At Naropa, I cultivated a broader understanding of contemporary methods and issues in religious studies and literary theory. As I began to focus my reading more in areas of interest, including the problem of clearly defining the notion of "text" and "textuality," I became interested in exploring the linkages possible between notions of "text" and "body."
How can interdisciplinary scholars locate safe intellectual ground for the body, and find a way to make sense of the body-situated (class, gender, age, race, nationality, etc. based) realities of the human subjects they study? What potential did the enigmatic metaphor of "writing the body" have for helping to theorize the social construction of identity?
Using as a springboard Kafka's dystopic short story "In the Penal Colony," my undergraduate thesis explored the possibilities inherent in contemporary theories of bodily inscription. By taking an in-depth look at the work of Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and other theorists, I argued that while vague, the notion of "writing the body" brings into play a significant problem.
In Kafka's story, the final irrevocable collision between body and writing seems provocatively to signify that perhaps indeed these notions cannot be irreconcilably distinguished. And if we cannot know or define clearly (at least in "linguistic" terms) just what the body is - if it cannot be fully translated or rendered clearly outside the realm of experience - then what does such fundamental uncertainty have to tell us?
Perhaps this ghost of a division (between the body and language) also suggests a productive elision (the inability to distinguish) between "body" and "text," and this elision can direct our attention to the limitless horizon of new possibilities that the future will hold. Whether or not such an interpretation seems compelling, however, I would argue that interdisciplinary scholars (and, indeed, perhaps all academics) need the space for uncertainty, for not-knowing, in the course of their intellectual pursuits. The elision between body and language, and the provocative question mark that emerges from it, may be compelling reasons to ask whether, in questions about the body, it will ever really be possible to emerge from some position of questioning.
