Recently, scholars in different disciplines ranging from neuroscience to gender studies have begun to orient their work toward the body, calling on those of us who write (and teach writing) in the 21st century to consider a wide range of questions: What is the connection between bodies and knowing? Between self-portraits experienced by us as creators and presentations of the self viewed by others? Between our physical and virtual presence(s) as we express ourselves through various media?
In this seminar, we will take up this call by studying the work of Eugene Gendlin, an experiential phenomenologist who coined the term ‘felt sense,’ and has for over 40 years called into question the Cartesian notion that the mind and the body are separate. This study of Gendlin’s work will be grounded in various experiments in composing in new media, using text, photos, video and multi-modal formats.
Descriptions of bodies in motion, acting, creating, performing, and presenting will accompany the theoretical questions and will be used to speak back to current theories of composing circulating within composition studies and elsewhere. Ultimately, we will be looking to create portraits of ourselves as embodied knowers and to flesh out (pun intended) a theory of embodied knowing as we compose in digital formats.