Rhythmic bodies

This chapter elaborates on the notion of sensorial multimodality by foregrounding the sensorial dimensions of multimodal communication in intercultural contexts. Focusing on how lived bodies coordinate their rhythmic communicative enactments with others, the author uses the notion of entrainment as an example of sensorial multimodality to highlight how the modality of communication is entangled with sensorial awareness and bodily participation. Situating the body as an active and open field of experience, sensorial multimodality pays attention to phenomenological dimensions of multimodal communication that constitutes lived and embodied subjectivity. The chapter argues that the feeling, sensing body plays a significant role in organising communicative resources and enacting and cohering a subject that communicates. An example of traditional Japanese femininity as a form of embodied entrainment grounded in proprioceptive knowledge is presented to seek insights into the role of rhythmic bodies in constituting gendered subjectivity. The chapter concludes by addressing the implications of entrained cultural bodies in the context of intercultural communication.