Synopsis "A Feminist View of the Body in Resistance (in English)"
This dissertation argues for a feminist practice of liminal laughter, a bodily laughter thatcements a critical engagement. Liminal laughter is formed in the margins, across variousdisciplines and genres; it is a subversive and parodic laughter that radically challenges thehegemonic narratives of patriarchy and heterosexuality. To contend that feminismbenefits from this practice of liminal laughter, I expand on poststructural andphenomenological feminisms and their conceptualizations of the body. Subsequently, using the nineteenth century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche and his concepts of thetransvaluation of all values, overcoming, and affirmation, I create a conceptual frame forthinking liminal laughter. To provide examples for this theory, I look to the MickeeFaust Club, an eclectic theater troupe in Tallahassee, Florida and the works of the theoristand novelist Hélène Cixous. Liminal laughter is a practice that revalues the body'scapacities of sensing feeling to disrupt and destabilize the mind / body, masculine /feminine, natural / unnatural, and subject / other binaries. By doing so, liminal laughternot only displaces the dominant terms, but it is also creates alternative narratives.
