ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the theme of the volume, discusses the state of the art, and presents different methodological approaches to analyzing how bodily aspects shaped the creation of stories and vice versa. It also highlights the transformative shifts in conceptions of the human body and narrative practices in the early modern era. Finally, it summarizes the central arguments of the contributions to the edited volume, which include embodied writing practices, corporeal self-representation, and the use of the body as a narrative medium. The essay challenges essentialist and constructivist dichotomies and pleads for interdisciplinary perspectives from history and literary studies to examine how bodies and stories co-constituted each other in the early modern world.
