Module 3 : Sites

Lecture 1 : The Body


Our attitudes to life and health are measured to the extent to which we partake of these activities. This is also interestingly given a moral shape. There is a moral imperative to be partakers of this kind of a new culture of the body where there are these newer forms of disciplinary practices. The body therefore is the most important site where culture establishes its power. The important aspect of Cultural Studies compared to other disciplines is that as it explores the domains, for instance the body, it seeks to not simply describe what is happening given the discourses of the body. It also has the political aim of showing to us how power is deeply engrained in something seemingly different from the social, which is the body. So the body becomes a social instrument and there are different ways in which it is performed.