Bodies in the Streets: The Somaesthetics of City Life

Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities, Professor Philosophy, and Director of the Center for Body, Mind, and Culture at Florida Atlantic University. His major books include Pragmatist Aesthetics, Practicing Philosophy, Performing Live, Body Consciousness, Thinking through the Body, and The Adventures of the Man in Gold.

"Shusterman and his colleagues launched a significant volume of essays about a new dimension of somaesthetics: bodies in the street. It shows somaesthetics' usefulness and ability to interpret every dimension of human life." - Alexander Kremer, University of Szeged, in: Pragmatism Today Vol. 11 (1/2020)"[D]oes somaesthetics provide a basis for critical assessment? Shusterman makes a strong case for the importance of the body and its role in all aspects of human experience. [...] The audience for this book may include aestheticians, but it offers potentially a much broader scope of interest, including the place of the body in urban studies, feminist theory, revolutionary politics, as well as literature and art." - Curtis L. Carter, Marquette University, in: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Vol. 78 (issue 2/2020)"Si tratta, pertanto, di un volume importante e decisivo nello sviluppo della somaestetica proposta da Shusterman, una tappa che prelude a passi ulteriori ma che già fin da adesso rimodula ulteriormente e in modo efficace il cammino della somaestetica." - Leonardo Distaso, University of Naples, in: Aisthema, International Journal Vol. VI (2019)“[A] significant contribution in imposing somaesthetics as one of the most open and pluralist fields in contemporary philosophy.” - Stefano Marino, University of Bologna, in: The Journal of Somaesthetics 6:2 (2020).

• List of IllustrationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Bodies in the Streets and the Somaesthetics of City LifeRichard ShustermanPart I: The Soma, the City, and the Weather1. Bodies in the Streets: The Soma, the City, and the Art of LivingRichard Shusterman2. The Weather-Worlds of Urban BodiesMădălina Diaconu3. White on Black: Snow in the City, Skiing in CopenhagenHenrik ReehPart II: Festival, Revolution, and Death4. Body Politics: Revolt and City CelebrationMatthew Crippen 5. Bodies in the Streets of Eastern Europe: Rhetorical Space and the Somaesthetics of RevolutionNoemi Marin 6. From Dancing to Dying in the Streets: Somaesthetics of the Cuban Revolution in Memories of Underdevelopment and Juan of the DeadMarilyn Miller Part III: Performances of Resistance, Gender, and Crime7. “Street” is Feminine in Italian: Feminine Bodies and Street SpacesIlaria Serra8. Bodies in Alliance and New Sites of Resistance: Performing the Political in Neoliberal Public SpaceFederica Castelli9. East End Prostitution and the Fear of Contagion: On Bodily Consciousness of the Ripper CaseChung-jen Chen10. Towards a Somaesthetic Conception of Culture in Iran: Somaesthetic Performances as Cultural Praxis in TehranAlireza FakhrkonandehPart IV: Bodies in the Streets of Literature and Art11. “Terrae Incognitae”: The Somaesthetics of Thomas De Quincey’s PsychogeographyEvy Varsamopoulou12. The Empty Spaces You Run Into: The City as Character and Background in William S. Burroughs’s Junky, Queer, and Naked LunchRobert Jones13. Somaesthetics and the Sublime: Varanasi in Modern and Contemporary Indian ArtPradeep DhillonName IndexSubject Index