Ambiguities and Contradictions Surrounding the Body and Education: Thoughts inspired by S. Polenghi, A. Németh, T. Kasper (eds.). Education and the Body in Europe (1900–1950). Movements, Public Health, Pedagogical Rules and Cultural Ideas

This contribution deals with the theme of education and the body in the history of Western culture: this reflection starts from the text Education and the Body in Europe (1900-1950). Movements, public health, pedagogical rules, and cultural ideas edited by S. Polenghi, A. Németh, T. Kasper, and it traces some lines of development on this theme present in the history of pedagogy and analyzed in depth by the authors of the above-mentioned volume. These lines are the link between the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of the body; the body and its limits, and therefore the concept of transcendence in all its manifestations; the aspiration to transcend in the natural environment as a return to a state of primal purity; how the body is perceived with space; the dynamics of power over the human body; the body and the gender differences