Fearless Trembling: A Leap of Faith into the Devil's Frying Pan

ABSTRACT

Phenomenologically and reflexively influenced, this paper investigates an experiential conception of the imagination through an exploration of an extreme bodily act. Foremost, it sets the scene for a conceptual consideration of dangerous practices such as cliff jumping. This potentially pushes the level in which we can reflect upon such a thing as an existential or embodied imagination. Here modernity's leveling of the docile body is challenged. Hence, in focusing on those sub-cultural practices that involve the extreme use of landscape, I propose an alternative scenario in which to consider the creativity of the body. Such a framework situates hazardous activities beyond the level of much contemporary thinking within the anthropology of sport or the sociology of risk, to a more far-reaching—perhaps “extremist” position—where they come across as existentially poignant, performative acts of the social imagination.

KEYWORDS:

• embodied imagination
• cliff jumping
• extreme landscapes
• existential anthropology