Readers’ Bloc: The Body in Question

In this Reader’s Bloc, we turn to the body as vessel and boundary — often a site of solitude and dehumanisation, yet also of intimacy and care.

Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men imagines a world stripped bare, where isolation defines the protagonist’s existence. In 90%, Mohammad Abdurazak invokes the “uncanny valley” — that unsettling space between the human and almost-human — as a metaphor for our faith in progress and desire for sentience.

Join us in reading works that push back against bodily norms and ideals, as we collectively imagine spaces where tenderness, resistance, and care can bloom.

The Readers’ Bloc is an online/IRL group of readers taking part in reading, listening and sharing exercises around texts that help us learn more about ourselves, the identities we share and the communities we live in.

This session is conducted as part of our engagements for the MAP Youth Collective. The MAP Youth Collective is a community for young people (18-25 year olds) to engage with the arts and culture sector. The collective is for, of and by young people — to explore our shared identities and interests through art.