Neo-Spiritual Aesthetics

Embodied Transformation in the Israeli Movement Practice Gaga

Lina Aschenbrenner (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

288 Seiten

2023
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-27287-3 (ISBN)

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Tracing embodied transformation in the context of Gaga, the Israeli dance improvisation practice, this book demystifies what Lina Aschenbrenner coins as “neo-spiritual aesthetics.” This book takes the reader on an analytical journey through a Gaga class, outlining the effective aesthetics of Gaga as an example for the broader field of neo-spiritualities. It distinguishes a threefold effect of Gaga practice—from a momentary extraordinary experience, to a lasting therapeutic effect, and finally Gaga’s worldview potential. It situates the effect in an assemblage of interrelating aesthetics of environment, movement, and bodies.

The book shows why seemingly leisure time activities such as Gaga form fruitful research objects to an academic study of religion and opens up research on neo-spiritual practices. In understanding the sensory effect of practice and its cultural and social implications, the book follows an Aesthetics of Religion approach. It departs from the idea that cognition is embodied and that the body is thus central to understanding cultural and social phenomena. Drawing upon a wide array of data gathered in the context of Gaga at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, the book weaves together different methods of discourse, ritual, movement, body knowledge, and narrative analysis, while acknowledging insights from neuroscience and cognitive science.

Lina Aschenbrenner is a postdoctoral researcher and dance artist based in Germany.

List of Figures and Tables
Lists
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Interlude: A Body-Focused Research Method
Part I. Gaga class—Aesthetics in Creation
1. Influential Culturescape
2. Ritual Environment Shaping Enactment
3. Body Topography in Discussion
4. The Power of Instructions
5. Transformation in Movement
PART II. Gaga Participants—Aesthetics Perceived
6. Narrating Body Knowledge
7. The Wow of Gaga
8. Gaga’s Therapeutic Impact
9. Goes Worldview
10. Concluding Thoughts
Notes
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	22.12.2022
Reihe/Serie	Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies
Zusatzinfo	10 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Geschichte der Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-350-27287-6 / 1350272876
ISBN-13	978-1-350-27287-3 / 9781350272873
Zustand	Neuware