Exploring Embodied Consciousness: The Intersection of Science and Sensuality in Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
World Journal of English Language February 13, 2026 DOI: 10.5430/wjel.v16n3p263 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Embodied cognition Emotive Schism Intersection aeronautics Subject documents Object grammar Identity music Space punctuation Rationality Point geometry Aesthetics Epistemology Cognitive science Sketch Human science Phenomenology philosophy Stern |
| Key points | Argues that Shafak's novel challenges Western dualisms of mind-body and reason-emotion by presenting Leila's final memories as activations of a "body schema" that persists after death, reconciling science and sensuality. |
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate how Shafak constructs a literary space in which the rationality of science intersects with the emotive and sensorial dimensions of human life, revealing the complexity of embodied existence. Engaging with 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (2019) the study explores how the protagonist, Tequila Leila, negotiates personal trauma, memory, and identity through a framework that fuses neurological time with deep sensuality. Crucially, this expanded research integrates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of “Phenomenology” and C.P. Snow’s “Two Culture” to deepen the understanding of Shafak’s narrative. While Snow’s “two Cultures” thesis outlines the historical schism between the sciences and humanities, Merleau-Ponty’s “phenomenology” offers the ontological remedy, positing that the body is not merely an object of science but the very condition of consciousness. The analysis demonstrates that Leila’s final memories after her death are not cognitive retrievals but activations of a “body schema” that persists in its grip on the world. By reimagining the novel as a “perceptual field” where the boundaries between the dying subject and the living city dissolve, Shafak challenges Western dualisms of mind-body and reason-emotion, offering a holistic vision in which science and sensuality are reconciled in the flesh of the text.