Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance: Interdisciplinary Dance Research in the American South by Eric Mullis (review)

Eric Mullis' Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance is a thoroughly multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary book that is centered on and deeply engaged in the experimental and lived experience of Pentecostal dance in the American and Appalachian South. The focal point for Mullis' research is not observation and critique of dance as embodied religious practice from a critical distance (although he does engage it critically and analytically) but from the inside, embedding his own person and body into the environment with all the resources of the unifying self that he has at his disposal to not just understand the form but feel it and live it. This makes Mullis a true William Jamesian and John Deweyan pragmatist; he doesn't just critically reflect on the work of classical pragmatists but he takes the reader on a sustained and deep dive into the qualitative, aesthetics, doing-and-undergoing world of the phenomenon he is analyzing. He does this as both a maker and creator of his own form of artistic representation of religious, ecstatic dance, using tools from contemporary and postmodern dance, theatre, and performance, and as an audience member and participant of Pentecostal services. He tells us about his process, which is reminiscent of Dewey's Barnesian explanation of how artists create art in Art as Experience, and he is willing to open himself up to the worries and possibility that he might, in the process, also experience true transformation and religious conversion (which has echoes of James' Varieties of Religious Experience). The primary value of this book for the pragmatist scholar is thus not historical analysis of pragmatic texts (although Mullis does some exegesis as well) but his example of how to be a pragmatist philosopher.

To clarify, this is not beauty-parlor or armchair philosophy but one that lives, transacts, and trades in the historical and cultural environment that Mullis seeks to understand. The reader who chooses to follow his lead finds themselves immersed in theories of religion, comparative dance practice, theatre studies, ethnography of folk aesthetics, philosophy of pragmatism, Continental philosophy, analytic philosophy, and East Asian philosophies (also reminiscent of Dewey), as well as experiential choreographic and religious practice. It's comprehensive, dense, and at times, a bit unwieldy as a result, but it is organized in such a way that the reader can skip around and focus on the parts and pieces of most interest and relevance to them.

The organization and movement of the book is as follows: Eight chapters progress not in linear or chronological fashion but in an interweaving way. The book does have forward motion in that it's laid out in a way that seeks to advance our understanding of the exploration that Mullis is undergoing, but it does not take the form of an analytic unfolding argument. There is no propositional claim that Mullis is providing evidence for; the exploration, growth, development and embracing of fallibilism along the way is also more pragmatic in overarching method than analytic. And yet, conclusions are drawn and theories advanced along the way. Close explanation of all the methodologies employed, how they intersect, and the difficulties and limitations of interweaving all of these into the rich tapestry that he has created, shows up in the "Concluding Thoughts" section of Chapter 8. It's so illuminating that it may benefit the reader to skim this section before beginning to read the rest of the book for frame of reference.

Chapters 1–4 set the historical stage for the book's philosophical and theatrical dance analysis. Chapter 1 outlines the pragmatic sources to be used in the book, including references to Dewey, James, and Richard Shusterman. Here Mullis explains why this is a pragmatist book, which for Mullis means that it is centered on experimental, first-person research as well as embracing pluralism and meliorism (the idea that the world can be made better with effort). He then explains how all of these theories...