Our bodies are the source of discourse:
Foucault had it backwards |
Koenigsberg |
Foucault |
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Foucault had it backwards. According to Koenigsberg, it is not so much the case that discourse shapes the body. Rather, the body, the experience of our body, and our fantasies about the body--shape discourse.
- The the term “body politic” is not simply a metaphor. This term expresses the fact that we relate to nations as if they are bodies. Our experience of our own body is the shapes--is the source of--our experience of the national body.
- Because nations are experienced in corporeal terms--as a projection of our bodies--we seek to secure their borders: orifices and entry points must be sealed. Infiltration and penetration must be prevented.
- The experience of one’s nations with insecure or porous boundaries is equivalent to the fear that one’s own body has insecure or porous bodies--and can be easily penetrated.
Since the nation is experienced as a projection of one’s own body—hysteria and paranoia are, fundamentally, the same thing. |
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