Bodies: Cavell, Thoreau, Eliot, Johns, Sedgwick, Sontag.

The vulnerability of the body demands our attention as poststructuralism and a long tradition of thought propelled by the sovereignty of language wane, and, with the new wave of theory called “Italian Theory,” bodies once again challenge the limits of language. This article proposes a roster of authors and thinkers who, across time, help us engage this broader horizon: David Henry Thoreau, T. S. Eliot, Stanley Cavell, Eve K. Sedgwick and Susan Sontag. The article draws on them to reflect on the movement back and forth between carnal and textual bodies in American literature and thought. They have been chosen because they resist an abstracting gaze on the body while inviting readers beyond a mere thematic treatment of the body.