Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Full-Day Schedule for October 12th

Chair and Moderator: Amanda Seaman, University of Massachusetts
at Amherst

This panel will explore representations of voluntary and involuntary bodily functions in writings by contemporary Japanese women. Panelists will draw connections between the daily practices of eating and bathing and attitudes towards the body politic and social relations. The Involuntary practice of ovulation will be examined for its potential role in experiencing thinking. Are food and eating sites for sensual perfection? Is purification a means of liberating female sexuality? Does the image of ovulation allow for a more sensual and less abstract mode of thinking? The connections between these intimate sensual processes and external social and political understanding will be explored in this panel.