Surgery and embodiment: Carving out subjects

As surgery cuts into the body it also defines the body in a specific way, marking it as a privileged site of subjectivity. The use of surgery within a range of medical and non-medical body modifications - from obesity surgery, intersex surgery and cosmetic surgery, to the surgical separation of conjoined siblings and self-demand amputation - marks surgical technologies and their practices as intimately involved in the forging of bodies and subjectivities. This Special Issue places surgery as central to the conception and (ongoing) formation of embodied subjectivity, implicated in the constructions of self and identity. The authors ask, what kinds of subjects come into being through surgical processes, What role has surgery come to play for embodiment early in the 21st century?.