Flesh and Body: On the Phenomenology of Husserl

Flesh and Body, originally released in French in 1981, is a pioneering study that provides both a close reading of Husserl's phenomenology of relationship between flesh and body as well as Didier Franck's own highly original account of flesh.

Husserl's work on the body influenced many phenomenologists, including Merleau-Ponty, Ricoeur, Henry, and Levinas, to name just a few. But his work was often misunderstood. Franck thus guides the reader carefully through Husserl's multi-layered and complex observations about the notions of on the flesh and the body. Franck shows that the flesh is never entirely one's own, instead it is always situated in relation to a prior alterity, principally the other ego. This book is thus a vital contribution to current debates over the themes of embodiment, temporality and intersubjectivity.