Henry David Thoreau: Thinking from the Body

This thesis aims at investigating the vital role of the body and the consequent implications of the corporeal dimension in Henry David Thoreau. Chapter 1 investigates Thoreau’s body starting from the interdisciplinary approach that the discipline of Body Studies has adopted in the study of human corporeality. The notions of contact and touching in Jean-Luc Nancy’s Corpus (2008) constitute the starting point to analyze Thoreau’s contact with the environment. The chapter also demonstrates that Thoreau’s environmental reputation originates precisely from this intimate, bodily touching with nature. Chapter 2 investigates further the contact between Thoreau’s body and the environment, aiming to demonstrate Thoreau’s process of corporeal detachment from wilderness and, conversely, his bodily relationship with wildness. It is shown Thoreau’s act of bodily circumscription and corporeal adaptation to his Concord-microcosm, a reduced location. Chapter 3 investigates Thoreau’s mind-body relation. The thesis offers an interactional perspective aiming to show the exact modality in which the writer’s body was capable of affecting his mind, taking into account the specific activities of walking, writing and reading. Chapter 4 investigates Thoreau’s specific typology of body, intending to demonstrate that the balanced, self-conscious modality of using his body rendered Thoreau’s corporeality a powerful site of agency, understanding and introspection.