Revisit And Return:the Present And Absent Body In Communication History

Similar to sociology,communication has taken a double approach to the body.On the one hand,communication research rarely focus on the body,and treats them as subjects with separate justifications.In this regard,the body is absent.On the other hand,when discussing communication practice,it is inevitable to involve the body.In this regard,the body is present.This situation of absenteeism,the close relationship between communication and the body,creates an inexplicable contrast.Contrary to disembodied perspective,communication research are not only unmoved by the body studies that swept the humanities and social sciences,but also do not take care of the current physical changes that are closely related to communication technology.To a certain extent,this limits the vision of communication and affects the quality of academic research.In view of this,it is both important and urgent to let the body return to the communication and let the communication return to the body.This study believes that communication studies can follow the sociological approach when exploring the path of study and body issues,that is,rediscovering the body from history,discovering theoretical resources on body from existing theories,and constructing Body theory with the perspective of communication.Based on this,this thesis attempts to search for the presence and absence of the body in the history of communication from the three dimensions of practice,ideas and academic research.This achieves two goals: first,to examine how the body mediates in high-level logic,abstract beliefs,and concrete local practice;second,it should response to some questions and topics that are closely related to body and communication.Through historical search,this study found different body and different aspects of the body in the practice field,the concept field,and the academic research field.In the practice field,the presence and absence of the body configures both face-to-face and non-face-to-face communication situations and modes of communication.In face-to-face communication,the body is coupled with the social structure in the presence of the alternation of the presence and the invisibility,and exhibits both the binding and the stimulating dual attributes.In non-face-to-face communication,the body interacts with the media in the dialectical interaction of absenteeism and reproduction,which not only shapes the medium but also adapts to the medium.In the intertwined with the media,thebody shape,the way of existence,and the way of presence are increasingly diversified.This aspect shows that the body is highly malleable,and on the other hand it shakes the existing status and cognition of corporeality and physical presence.In the field of ideas,the dream of disembodied communication is in sharp contrast with the reality of embodiment.The unconventional non-having dreams are the core of the spirit of salvation and liberation.They have their historical origins and evolutionary trajectories,and they manifest themselves in different narratives in different periods.Along with it,there is a set of discourse that degrades the body,and a torrent of darkness that erases the body.When the dream of spreading away from the shackles is practiced,the embodied problems of physical reality and communication will always be apparent.In the field of academic research,communication theories,communities,approaches,and paradigm compete with each other and sway each other,obscuring or highlighting the body,leading to the reality of its present absence.Behind the capital's "human",the body rises and disappears as the researcher constructs and writes "human",and becomes a mirror image of the game of academic power.The body's mediation in concrete practice,abstract beliefs,and high-level logic shows that communication has its deep-rooted materiality,technology has its intangible physical attributes,and the body has amazing plasticity.Finding the body and returning to the body is the return to the truth that we live in body.