At the Crossroad of Phenomenology and Feminist New Materialism: A Diffractive Reading of Embodiment

This chapter invites us to an experimental encounter at the crossroads of phenomenology and feminist new materialism in which neither the reader nor the author knows in advance what ontoepistemological knowledge will emerge from the mix of concepts, bodies, images, and a􀁼ects. It invites us to focus on embodiment and to follow a line of thought that belongs neither to the initiator nor to the reader, but happens ‘between them’. It proposes to the readers to immerse themselves in several short stories, coming from di􀁼erent sources, and to consider them as resources to think with. The di􀁼raction of narratives, like the movement of the waves, produces six interferences in between the concept of embodiment with ordinary a􀁼ect, corpomateriality, transcorporeality, virtual embodiment, becoming-animal, and a􀁼ective pedagogy. The chapter ends with a discussion of the methodology of diffractive reading.