From embodiment to emplacement: re-thinking competing bodies, senses and spatialities

Abstract

In this article I discuss how a shift from theories of embodiment to one of emplacement can inform how we understand the performing body in competitive and pedagogical contexts. I argue that recent theoretical advances concerning the senses, human perception and place offer new analytical possibilities for understanding skilled performances and events. In doing so I critically re-think my own analysis of the Spanish bullfight as an embodied performance to demonstrate the benefits of a shift from embodiment to emplacement as a theoretical and methodological approach; and propose that there are wider implications of such a theoretical shift for interpreting performances in other cultural and social contexts.

Keywords:

• Embodiment
• Emplacement
• Place
• The senses
• Multisensoriality
• Perception
• Bullfight

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank John Evans on two counts. First, for inviting me to contribute this article and in doing so, inspiring me to engage in the fascinating task of re-thinking my existing work though new paradigms. Second, for suggesting the possibility of the connections I make to contexts of pedagogy at certain points in this article. I am also indebted to John Postill for his help in translating a difficult passage from Blasco Ibáñez's Sangre y Arena.