The Body Imagined by Modernity: Sensibility, Capitalism and Arrogance

Abstract

The body has become a key visual resource for presenting and defining personal identity, accompanied by a call for sensitive exploration through experiences that intensify a localized sense. This article addresses the question, “How can we make the body imagined by modernity intelligible?” by structuring the discussion around four layers: first, the inability to denote a completely naked body, that is, a hermetic, substantial or essential body; second, the emergence of the body as a psychosomatic reality; third, the positioning of the body within the city post-Industrial Revolution; and fourth, the consideration of sustainable consumption as an arrogant class trait. This framework establishes a confrontation that combines studies on the body in terms of sensibility, historiography, urban organization after the 18th century, and capitalism, with a marked political/social emphasis. It is concluded that the body, as our position or condition of being and affecting the world, is an open, flexible reality, historically and politically shaped by the past. Sensibility, which seems evident regarding our nervous system and senses, responds to structures, specifications, focalizations and distributions. The goal of this article is to examine how sensibility and its production converge with capitalism and individuality as blurred forms of socialization since the consolidation of the city and the ostentation of a monetary status that prioritizes the body.