Bodies in the Streets: the Somaesthetics of City Life: The Somaesthetics of City Life

"Cities are defined by their complex network of busy streets and the multitudes of people that animate them through physical presence and bodily actions that often differ dramatically: elegant window-shoppers and homeless beggars, protesting crowds and patrolling police. As bodies shape city life, so the city's spaces, structures, economies, politics, rhythms, and atmospheres reciprocally shape the urban soma. This collection of original essays explores the somaesthetic qualities and challenges of city life (in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas) from a variety of perspectives ranging from philosophy, urban theory, political theory, and gender studies to visual art, criminology, and the interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics. Together these essays illustrate the aesthetic, cultural, and political roles and trials of bodies in the city streets"-- Provided by publisher Bodies in the Streets: The Somaesthetics of City Life Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Contributors Introduction Bodies in the Streets and the Somaesthetics of City Life Part 1: The Soma, the City, and the Weather 1 Bodies in the Streets: The Soma, the City, and the Art of Living 2 The Weather-Worlds of Urban Bodies 3 White on Black: Snow in the City, Skiing in Copenhagen Part 2: Festival, Revolution, and Death 4 Body Politics: Revolt and City Celebration 5 Bodies in the Streets of Eastern Europe: Rhetorical Space and the Somaesthetics of Revolution 6 From Dancing to Dying in the Streets: Somaesthetics of the Cuban Revolution in Memories of Underdevelopment and Juan of the Dead Part 3: Performances of Resistance, Gender, and Crime 7 "Street" is Feminine in Italian: Feminine Bodies and Street Spaces 8 Bodies in Alliance and New Sites of Resistance: Performing the Political in Neoliberal Public Spaces 9 East End Prostitution and the Fear of Contagion: On Body Consciousness of the Ripper Case 10 Towards a Somaesthetic Conception of Culture in Iran: Somaesthetic Performance as Cultural Praxis in Tehran Part 4: Bodies in the Streets of Literature and Art 11 "Terrae Incognitae": The Somaesthetics of Thomas De Quincey's Psychogeography 12 The Empty Spaces You Run Into: The City as Character and Background in William S. Burroughs's Junky, Queer, and Naked Lunch 13 The Somaesthetic Sublime: Varanasi in Modern and Contemporary Indian Art Name Index Subject Index Thirteen original essays explore the qualities and challenges of urban life (in Europe, Asia, and the Americas) from a variety of disciplinary perspectives that illustrate the aesthetic, cultural, and political roles of bodies in the city streets.