This thesis makes a contribution to the spatio-analysis of contemporary cultures that creatively and reflexively experiment with the surface of the body. Drawing upon the philosophical work of Henri Lefebvre, The Savage Body provides an exploration of representational space. Lefebvre considered this element of social relations to be clandestine and transgressive, relating to the aesthetic sphere of symbols and codes. For Lefebvre, these spaces were lived through associated imagery, embracing passion, pleasure and dismay. This thesis provides an exploration of two distinct, yet related representational spaces. The Fetish Scene is a culture that has a more bounded sense of symbolic community and dwells within the night-time sexual economy of club land. In comparison, the Pierced Body is a more fragmented sphere, scattered and located within a diverse cultural landscape. Though separate cultures, these two spaces overlap in the Torture Garden, a night-club on the periphery and cutting edge of the fetish scene. It is within this realm that the fetish people and pierced bodies meet to celebrate the pleasures of the flesh. This work explores the way these cultural sites are produced through the creativity of those involved and the subjective relation to representational space. The body is considered as actively weaving its way through landscapes which both mark and leave their mark on those engaging in these spheres. Beyond mapping out the cultures of the Fetish Scene and the Pierced Body on a descriptive and broad level, I also consider identity as reflexively situated within representational space and the way that memory plays an active part in constructing narratives that operate on an individual and broader cultural level. Developing the idea of a 'haptic ethnography', drawing upon a variety of methods, I have used and documented my own body as a means of exploring these rhythmic realms, speaking with the Other instead of for the Other.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:274269 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Miles, Cressida Serena |
| Publisher | Lancaster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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