Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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143112

Perceiving subjectivity in bodily movement

the case of dancers

Dorothée LegrandSusanne Ravn

pp. 389-408

Abstract

This paper is about one of the puzzles of bodily self-consciousness: can an experience be both and at the same time an experience of one′s physicality and of one′s subjectivity? We will answer this question positively by determining a form of experience where the body′s physicality is experienced in a non-reifying manner. We will consider a form of experience of oneself as bodily which is different from both "prenoetic embodiment" and "pre-reflective bodily consciousness" and rather corresponds to a form of reflective access to subjectivity at the bodily level. In particular, we argue that subjectivity is bodily expressed, thereby allowing the experience of the body′s subjectivity directly during perceptual experiences of the body. We use an interweaving of phenomenological explorations and ethnographical methods which allows validating this proposal by considering the experience of body experts (dancers).

Publication details

Published in:

Legrand Dorothée, Grünbaum Thor, Krueger Joel (2009) Dimensions of bodily subjectivity. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8 (3).

Pages: 389-408

DOI: 10.1007/s11097-009-9135-5

Full citation:

Legrand Dorothée, Ravn Susanne (2009) „Perceiving subjectivity in bodily movement: the case of dancers“. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8 (3), 389–408.