Reinstating Corporeality: Feminism
and Body Politics
-Janet Wolff
“The Story is told as a History of the
Body”: Strategies of Mimesis in the
Work of Irigaray and Baucsh
-Susan Kozel
Presentation by Smeli Porterfield and
Adrienne Chuck
Edited by: Dr. Picart and Donna Gallagher
What to Look Forward to (Aims):
Exploration of Wolff’s article
Explanation of how the body relates to
society
Discussion pertaining to the views society
holds on the body
Relating the relationship between society
and the body to dance
Key Words and Phrases:
Corporeality:
Feminism:
Body Politics:
What Wolff Does:
Discusses body politics as related to the
way women are viewed.
Questions if the female body can be used
for cultural protest.
Relates body politics to dance.
Current Ideas/Views of the Body:
 Buñuel’s The
Phantom of Liberty
 Manners
 These apply to every
body.
Discussion Question:
 What are other
examples of ways we
utilize our bodies or
bodily functions that
are shunned by
society?
 Why?
“Classical Body” vs. “Grotesque Body”
Discussion Questions:
 How is the
female body, in
particular,
viewed in
society?
 What are
common norms
we associate
with things that
are “feminine”?
Defiance!
Wolff asks her own discussion question:
“What happens when the female body is
affirmed and displayed, in defiance of the
dominant “perfect body,” acknowledging
the reality of actual women, the diversities
of shape and size, the functions of
corporeal existence (eating, excreting,
menstruation, sex, pregnancy, aging,
illness)?
Discussion Question:
What do we see portrayed in dance
(namely, ballet), the “classical” or the
“grotesque” body?
Question:
Can you think of any examples of any
medium which uses the “grotesque” body
type?
Concluding Question:
 Will breaking away
from the constant use
of the “perfect body”
in dance (and other
arts) help to dissolve
the ideologies
regarding the female
body in our culture?
What to Look Forward to (Aims):
Exploration of Kozel’s article
A look into mimesis
Elements of mimetic strategy
Brief discussion of duality
A look at both Irigaray and Bausch
Key Words and Phrases:
MimesisDuality-
Time, space, fluidity, and desire as they
relate to mimesis
Question:
 If a dance or a painting does not imitate and
resemble nature or life, is it not as beautiful as
those that do?
Question:
 Is it absolutely
necessary to
obtain the negative
to get to the
positive and vice
versa? Why?
Question:
 What does Lacan’s theory remind you of?
(Here’s a hint:
away!)
-that should give it