How can the dichotomy between body and language be overcome by means of the performing arts? What does the art of performing contribute to philosophical, ethical, and political thinking today?

This book is a study of the body and language on the stage. Inspired by contemporary artistic research and performance philosophy, Esa Kirkkopelto proposes a new understanding of embodiment that has no direct counterpart in existing philosophies of the body, in natural science, or in everyday experience. The way a performer imagines their body in performance breaks with body–language dichotomies, so language and body can be conceived as co-original phenomena, beyond their anthropomorphic framing. Once we recognize the native relationship between body and language, we can acquire an evolutive perspective which reaches beyond ontological or transcendental paradigms, towards a more linguistic and corporeal coexistence of diverse beings.

This book shows how radically different the universe appears when conceived through the performing body. It addresses artists and philosophers alike.

Translated by: Kate Sotejeff-Wilson