Receptive Bodies
Leo Bersani
Abstract
This book is centered on a surprisingly simple image: a newborn baby simultaneously crying out and drawing its first breath. These twin ideas—absorption and expulsion, the intake of physical and emotional nourishment, and the exhalation of breath—form the backbone of this book. These titular bodies range from fetuses in utero to fully eroticized adults, all the way to celestial giants floating in space. The author illustrates his exploration of the body's capacities to receive and resist what is ostensibly alien using a typically eclectic set of sources, from literary icons like Marquis de Sad ... More
Keywords: absorption, expulsion, human corporeality, emotional nourishment, physical nourishment, exhalation
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2018 | Print ISBN-13: 9780226579627 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: May 2019 | DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226579931.001.0001 |
