TRANSGRESSION OF THE BODY IN THE CONTEXT OF WAR: A CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The body is a fundamental reality of human existence. It constitutes the basis of our dynamic presence in the world, inseparable from the experience of transgressive states – violations of boundaries, norms, taboos, and prohibitions – that shape new (alternative) spaces of culture, art, and self-development. In the context of war, bodily practices “at the edge” undergo transformation, offering a new anthropology of the body and novel forms of corporeal interaction. This article analyzes the phenomenon of bodily transgression in conditions of war, which challenges traditional notions of corporeality, identity, and human nature. Bodily experience changes under extreme circumstances, revealing various forms of interaction – especially those between biological and technological factors – profoundly altering accepted and conventional perceptions of bodily reality. War is examined as a situation of existential transgression of the body – on physical, psychological, social, and cultural levels. It explores how the body, crossing normative limits, becomes both a subject and a resource of cultural transformation and re-identification. War disrupts the notion of the body as a controlled and stable subject, immersing it in the “chaosmos” of existential crisis. The wounded body becomes a cultural artifact – a symbol of loss, resilience, and collective memory. It evolves from the biological into the technological and psychosomatic, shaping new identities: from soldier to victim, from civilian to hero. Artistic and therapeutic bodily practices create forms of resistance, rehabilitation, and cultural self-awareness. In the context of war, bodily transgression becomes a critically important cultural dynamic. The body turns into an instrument of identity and memory – a key to understanding contemporary culture of corporeality, violence, trauma, and regeneration. War generates new cultural models through the lived experience of transgression, contributing to the formation of collective memory, solidarity, and trans-corporeality.