Displayed and hidden, cherished and vilified, adulated and
violated, sacralised and demonised, emancipated and
discriminated, the human body, this “first and most natural
instrument of man” (according to the ethnologist-sociologist Marcel Mauss), has been, from mythical times to present day, a constant object of contemplation, a repository of cultural
markers, a most faithful witness to our world dynamics. This has led to multifaceted approaches to the body recorded in the
evolution of the philosophical, biological, psychological,
anthropological, sociological thought.

The 31st issue (1/2023) of AIC focuses on the representations and functions of this archi-theme in literature and art, embracing a variety of critical and hermeneutical perspectives inspired by the study of literature – from mediaeval and Renaissance European literature to recent literary trends, such as postcolonial diasporic writing, fantasy novel and self-narrative. Researchers from Europe, Africa, North and South America meet within the pages of the present volume; their fields of interest span from semiotics, mythocriticism, literary history, cultural history and
geography to sociocriticism, performance studies, political and gender studies. Their
contributions deal with the body in its multifarious modalities: body as a mirror of
the human character; body as an enemy of the soul; body as an image of the universe; body as an art object; body as a victim of social and political injustice, of war, terrorism and globalisation; body as a burden; body as an erotic object; body as a victim; body –
dismantled, transformed, hybridized, deconstructed – as a metaphor of the text itself.