Core Practice 2 — Literature: A spatial approach
During literature review we easily get inundated with questions about what to read, where to start, and how to find our unique and original contribution amongst the forest of existing texts. This Exploration engages with these questions through the body and through physically arranging some literature around you. We assume that objects, such as books, as well as the space contain information beyond that which is immediately obvious. The body is a kind of ‘Cognitive Plus’ tool to access that information, and allows you to engage with your literature review in an embodied, spatial manner. This can give you fresh insights into familiar texts, clarify relationships between different pieces of literature, show gaps, and help you find your own flow in the landscape of readings. Allow your curiosity to take you on a journey, as you review and explore your literature in this novel way!
Further Reading
Coole, D. H. (2010) ‘The Inertia of Matter and the Generativity of Flesh’, in Frost, S. & Coole, D.H. (eds.) New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics CHECK: Duke University Press, pp. 92-115.
Fleckenstein, K. S. (1999) ‘Writing Bodies: Somatic Mind in Composition Studies ‘, College English, 61(3), pp. 281-306.
Hunter, L. and Emerald, E. (2016) ‘Sensory narratives: capturing embodiment in narratives of movement, sport, leisure and health’, Sport, Education and Society, 21(1), pp. 28-46.
Hurdley, R. and Dicks, B. (2011) ‘In-between practice: working in the ‘thirdspace’ of sensory and multimodal methodology’, Qualitative Research, 11(3), pp. 277-292.
Kieft, E. (2016) ‘Book Review of Embodied inquiry. Writing, living and being through the body by Celeste Snowber. ‘, Journal of Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, 3(1 & 2), pp. 177-180.
Kramer, P. (2012) ‘Bodies, Rivers, Rocks and Trees: Meeting agentic materiality in contemporary outdoor dance practices’, Performance Research. A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17(4), pp. 83-91.
Nabhan-Warren, K. (2011) ‘Embodied Research and Writing: A Case for Phenomenologically Oriented Religious Studies Ethnographies’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 79(2), pp. 378-407.
Snowber, C. (2016) Embodied inquiry. Writing, living and being through the body. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Ulmer, J. B. (2017) ‘Writing Slow Ontology’, Qualitative Inquiry, 23(3), pp. 201-211.