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Nations are experienced as Bodies
Koenigsberg
Koenigsberg
Foucault
Foucault
Foucault had it backwards. According to Koenigsberg, it is not so much that discourse shapes the body, but that the body is the source of discourse:
  • The “body politic” is not simply a metaphor. This term expresses the fact that nations are experienced as if bodies.
  • Because nations are experienced in corporeal terms, they seek to secure their borders—orifices and entry points—from infiltration and penetration.
  • The experience of one’s nations with insecure or porous boundaries—is equivalent to the fear that one’s own body will be penetrated.
Since the nation is experienced as a projection of one’s body—hysteria and paranoia are the same.