ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines what embodied cognition is, single out some aspects of it that pertain to performance theory and practice and relate these aspects to different strategies for the Shakespearean text that have modelled upon some influential theatre practitioners. The theory of embodied cognition has underpinned a broad and expanding field of inquiry within cognitive studies since the mid-1970s. It has also received attention from those theatre scholars who, since the early 1990s, have been exploring the topics of embodiment and cognition in relation to Shakespearean production, actor training and methods of rehearsal. It can be understood as the proposition that an individual's cognitive and bodily processes should be seen as interdependent. Nearly everything that goes under the name of embodied cognition happens under the radar of conscious awareness. Conscious or not, embodied cognition makes sense when it is set against a backdrop of evolutionary constraints and motives.
