ABSTRACT
The question of corporeality has provoked critical thinkers over the centuries, and in more recent years is evident in the growing lists of new titles devoted to the body. Nevertheless, it seems appropriate that an introduction to yet another book on the body should have some claim for special attention, some justification that might prove persuasive to an already jaded reader. In pondering how I might go about this task, I’ve come to realize—albeit with the clarity of hindsight—that my work has been shaped by a rather bruising intellectual itinerary. The result is by no means a happy amalgam of insights gleaned from desultory studies in different academic departments. It is, I suspect, much more a response to the sort of blustering hostility that my questions have so often occasioned. The vehemence of this hostility has sometimes been bewildering. Yet I’ve always had a genuine curiosity about the motivations behind the sort of intellectual defensiveness that kicks in with the swiftness of a visceral reflex. The strategies are various yet consistent in their urgent need to shut down inquiry. As I’ve watched this phenomenon, I’ve been aware that on some deep level my critics had a better grasp of what they were defending than I had of what I might be threatening. But what was it, exactly, that made my questions so improper?
