Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies ›› 2025, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (5): 178-185.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2025.05.018

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Body Criticism in the Digital Age

XIE Chuanbo(), DING Jianxin()   

  • Online:2025-10-28 Published:2025-11-07

Abstract:

Body criticism in the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) theory is a discourse criticism paradigm rooted in culture and society. It is language criticism, cultural criticism and social criticism. This critical paradigm is not only influenced by ideology, but also closely related to society and power. With the continuous innovation of human scientific paradigms, various anxieties arise in the integration of the body with machinery and technology. Originating from the theory of cybernetics, the cyborg not only liberates the body, but also becomes a tool of political desire to manipulate the body, with a strong ideological inclination. In the meta-verse, the exploration of body signs is of socio-archaeological significance. The real self and the virtual body communicate and spread meaning in fictional imagery and discourse spaces. In the Artificial Intelligence (AI) language models, the body and the mind are homogeneous rather than dichotomous. In the digital age, the body is a battleground of cultural power, and as a linguistic sign, the body suffers from the reshaping of hegemonic discourse and unequal treatment. The technology should have been liberated power of human beings, but it is now constantly being reduced to a shackle that binds the body. The value issues of technology, humanity, ethics and so on need to be pondered deeply.

Key words: body, criticism, sign, meaning

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