Abstract
<p> Combining the notions of performativity and embodiment, this book situates the body in the realm of processes, movement, and <italic>poiesis</italic> , seeking to generate alternative configurations to mind–body dualism. Focused on language, literature, dance, affect, gender, sport, and disability, the contributions to this volume emphasize doing over <italic>being</italic> : the body <italic>does</italic> and is <italic>done</italic> ; it is engaged in a movement of co-constitution with the world. It is in <italic>doing</italic> that bodies produce knowledge and shared or contested social meaning. Such a relational process is best described through the notion of choreographies — patterns of movement which capture the embodied dynamic of passivity and activity, design and improvisation, inner and outer states, and which fittingly describe the modalities through which social norms discipline bodies, or are challenged by them. </p>