Poetics of the Flesh

Mayra Rivera

In Poetics of the Flesh Mayra Rivera offers poetic reflections on how we understand our carnal relationship to the world, at once spiritual, organic, and social. She connects conversations about corporeality in theology, political theory, and continental philosophy to show the relationship between the ways ancient Christian thinkers and modern Western philosophers conceive of the "body" and "flesh." Her readings of the biblical writings of John and Paul as well as the work of Tertullian illustrate how Christian ideas of flesh influenced the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Michel Foucault, and inform her readings of Judith Butler, Frantz Fanon, and others. Rivera also furthers developments in new materialism by exploring the intersections among bodies, material elements, social arrangements, and discourses through body and flesh. By painting a complex picture of bodies, and by developing an account of how the social materializes in flesh, Rivera provides a new way to understand gender and race.

Acknowledgments  vii Introduction. Both Flesh and Not  1 Part I: Regarding Christian Bodies  15 1. Becoming Flesh: The Gospel of John  19 2. Abandoning Flesh: The Letters of Paul  29 3. Embracing Flesh: Tertullian  43 Part II: The Philosophers' (Christian) Flesh  55 4. Incarnate Philosophy  59 5. The Ends of Flesh  87 Part III: A Labyrinth of Incarnations  111 6. Inescapable Bodies  117 7. Carnal Relations  133 Conclusion  153 Notes  159 Bibliography  193 Index  203