@article{108af79b1b96471cb2020c96745d7fa3,
title = "The Attentive Body: How the Indexicality of Epigenetic Processes Enriches Our Understanding of Embodied Subjectivity",
abstract = "Drawing on research in posthumanism, science and technology studies and biosemiotics, this essay analyses the challenges epigenetic processes pose for our understanding of embodied subjectivity. It uses the work of Charles Sanders Peirce to argue that epigenetic processes are indexical in their patterned logic, that they are meaning-making processes and that, consequently, they can be conceived as a form of attention. To conceive of bodies as paying attention through epigenetic processes is to rupture the distinction between matter and meaning that governs many philosophical categories. This in turn invites us to recalibrate our conception of the relationship between self, body and world.",
keywords = "Agamben, biopolitics, biosemiotics, enactivism, epigenetics, new materialisms, subjectivity",
author = "Samantha Frost",
note = "Funding Information: Many thanks to members of my {\textquoteleft}Matters of perception: Objects and materialities of affects{\textquoteright} seminar at the 2016 Kent Summer School in Critical Theory where ideas for this article germinated. Thanks also to the participants at the {\textquoteleft}Religion and the Science of Life{\textquoteright} conference at the University of Oxford (2017) and faculty and students in the Political Science departments at Johns Hopkins University (2017) and University of Pennsylvania (2019) where I presented versions of this article. For conversations engaging these ideas, I am grateful to Romand Coles, Tim Dean, Tom Dumm, Maria Gillombardo, Rosine Kelz, Craig Koslofksy, Hannah Landecker, Rachel Lee, Dan Liu, Maurizio Meloni, Chantal Nadeau, Cynthia Oliver, Rebecca Pulsifer, Gene Robinson, Donovan Schaefer, Wendy Truran, Michael Uhall and Deborah Youdell. Especial gratitude to Emily Beausoleil, Antoinette Burton, Andy Gaedtke and reviewers for insightful comments on early and later drafts. Thanks also to Sarah Hennebohl, Hana Nasser and Mike Uhall for research assistance. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The writing of this article was funded in part by an Emerging Areas in the Humanities: Biohumanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The writing of this article was funded in part by an Emerging Areas in the Humanities: Biohumanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2020.",
year = "2020",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1177/1357034X20940778",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "26",
pages = "3--34",
journal = "Body and Society",
issn = "1357-034X",
publisher = "SAGE Publishing",
number = "4",
}