Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relationship among mind, body, and environment in the context of early modern Spanish performance. It frames its discussion within Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetics. Somaesthetics is a discipline of theory and practice that offers an inclusive and innovative understanding of the relationship between mind and body. A somaesthetics approach to Spanish comedia is particularly useful to discuss how human beings engage in the early modern theatrical experience, and the dynamic interactions that occur among those embodied minds in the physical and social environment of the corral. Somaesthetics provides us with the methodological framework to both systematize and further understand the embodiment aspects of the comedia experience, particularly those related to socio-normative aspects and how individuals of certain social groups push, as audience members, the limits of prescribed behavior.