Linguistic Alterity and the Multiplicitous Self: Critical Phenomenologies in Latina Feminist Thought

Hypatia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-436
Author(s):  
Elena Flores Ruíz

Latina feminists like Gloria Anzaldúa and Mariana Ortega have developed anti‐essentialist accounts of selfhood that are responsive to the problem of alterity and hermeneutic alienation experienced by multiplicitous subjects, understood as those who must navigate between multiple cultural norms and often conflicting interpretive traditions (due to colonial legacies and intersectional oppressions). These accounts can be fortified by examining the sense of inarticulacy that arises from having to name conditions of existence undergirded by social and historical contradictions and ambiguities—especially under the experiential stress of gendered social violence, cultural trauma, and state terror. To address phenomenological accounts of “linguistic terrorism” and the role language plays in multiplicitous accounts of selfhood, I turn to a strategic reading of Nietzsche's existential conception of the self as a living multiplicity, and to his related account of the impoverishment of language. In doing so, I argue more generally that philosophies of agency that critique agential narratives of rupture, instability, and interpretive loss (as part of liberal emancipatory projects) often do so without sufficient attunement to the ways concepts of alterity and liminality operate in North–South contexts or Latina feminist thought. I end by highlighting the critical, decolonial impetus of these concepts as responses to cultural violence.

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-215
Author(s):  
William A. Cohen

Vanity Fair (1848) famously opens with a departure. As Becky Sharpe flounces off from Miss Pinkerton's academy, she takes leave of her patron by telling her “in a very unconcerned manner … and with a perfect accent, ‘Mademoiselle, je viens vous faire mes adieux.’” Miss Pinkerton, we learn, “did not understand French, she only directed those who did: but biting her lips and throwing up her venerable and Roman-nosed head … said, ‘Miss Sharp, I wish you a good morning’” (7). This performance of befuddlement on the part of a respectable schoolmistress bespeaks a whole collection of Victorian cultural norms about language competence in general and about the French language in particular. Even though the action is set in a period when Becky's speaking “French with purity and a Parisian accent … [was] rather a rare accomplishment” (11), the novel was written for a mid-nineteenth-century audience that could mainly count on middle-class young ladies to have acquired this degree of refinement—or at least to aspire to do so.


Utilitas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-415
Author(s):  
C. E. Abbate

AbstractIn his influential article on the ethics of eating animals, Alastair Norcross argues that consumers of factory raised meat and puppy torturers are equally condemnable because both knowingly cause serious harm to sentient creatures just for trivial pleasures. Against this claim, I argue that those who buy and consume factory raised meat, even those who do so knowing that they cause harm, have a partial excuse for their wrongdoings. Meat eaters act under social duress, which causes volitional impairment, and they often act from deeply ingrained habits, which causes epistemic impairment. But puppy torturers act against cultural norms and habits, consciously choosing to perform wrongful acts. Consequently, the average consumer of factory raised meat has, while puppy torturers lack, a cultural excuse. But although consumers of factory raised meat aren't blameworthy, they are partially morally responsible for their harmful behavior – and for this, they should feel regret, remorse, and shame.


Hypatia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Roelofs

Address figures prominently in contemporary (Latina) feminism, yet calls for further theorizing. Modes of address are forms of signification we direct at people, objects, and places, and they at us. Address constitutes a vital dimension of our corporeal interactions with persons and the material world. Our relationships are in motion as we adopt modes of address toward one another or fail to do so. Clarifying address through examples from Gloria Anzaldúa, this essay reveals its importance in María Lugones's writings. The essay thereby highlights underexplored aspects of Lugones's texts, identifies continuities between Lugones's philosophy and (Latina) feminist work that comprehends address as a carrier of aesthetic and political meanings, and illuminates the resources of a remarkably fruitful concept. Address, in Lugones, is the centerpiece of a quotidian cultural politics. Principal concepts she introduces (concerning subjectivity, critique and transformation, social categorization and interaction, the role of language, bodies, objects, and places) recruit address. Yet, by foregrounding address, the essay also brings into view unforeseen obstructions in the paths of address that Lugones champions, and an enlarged playing field that we can activate to realize desirable frames of address and derail objectionable structures. Avenues open up for further development of Lugones's insights and for inquiries into address.


2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miklós Takács

Sebald’s novel Austerlitz can be considered a „trauma novel” not only for a narratological reason (that is, because it reflects upon the non-representability of trauma on the level of words), but also because it reveals the impossibility of depicting a past memory with pictures – despite of the fact that both the narrator and the title character are feel impelled to do so. The attitude of the narrator illustrates a phenomenon that the German sociologist Bernhard Giesen describes as the perpetrator’s trauma. According to this theory the individual trauma becomes a collective one in case of the perpetrators. Austerlitz, on the other hand, turns into a medium of the victimes as well. Cultural trauma can also become a part of the personal identity due to certain individuals and media, such as the photography, which is of crucial importance for remembering in the novel. One can describe the sound and picture of the trauma with the term of catachresis. This figure involves the constraint of signifying the non-representability.


Author(s):  
Paulo Henrique Leal ◽  
Aida Victoria Garcia Montrone

ResumoCom base nos estudos de natureza qualitativa e suleado por referenciais latino-americanos, o objetivo deste estudo foi descrever possibilidades de compreensões com o Outro e de seu reconhecimento em práticas sociais. Para tanto, foi realizada uma incursão à literatura acerca das temáticas referentes à violência social, conceituação de Outro, práticas sociais e processos educativos, bem como a indicação de algumas pesquisas já realizadas, como possibilidades intencionalizadas a um mundo mais justo, dialógico e, portanto, humanizado. Estranhar-se, respeitar, confiar, empatizar, dialogar e caminhar no face a face são ações de amorosidade imperativas ao reconhecimento da humanidade do Outro e, portanto, dos nossos próprios processos de superação da violência social. Assim, torna-se possível a construção de laços e costuras mutuamente solidárias, na abertura ao desvelar(-se) e ao tecer dos processos educativos ao longo da convivência dialógica, investigativa ou não, em práticas sociais.Palavras-chave: Processos Educativos. Violência Social. Convivência Dialógica.The Other and social violence: possibilities of comprehensions in social practicesAbstractBased on studies of qualitative origin and guided by Latin American references, the objective of this study was to describe possibilities of understanding with the Other and their recognition in social practices. In order to do so, an incursion into the literature on social violence, conceptualization of Other, social practices and educational processes was carried out, as well as the indication of some research already done, as intentional possibilities for a fairer world, dialogical and therefore, humanized. Strangeness, respect, trust, empathy, dialog and walk face to face are acts of love that are imperative to the recognition of the humanity of the Other, and therefore of our own processes of overcoming social violence. That way, it becomes possible to build ties and seams mutually supportive, in the opening when unveiling and weaving of the educational processes along the dialogical coexistence, investigative or not, in social practices.Keywords: Educational Processes. Social Violence. Dialogical Coexistence.El Otro y la violencia social: posibilidades de comprensiones en prácticas socialesResumenCon base en los estudios de origen cualitativo y suleados por referenciales latinoamericanos, el objetivo de este estudio fue describir posibilidades de comprensión con el Otro y de su reconocimiento en prácticas sociales. Para ello, se realizó una incursión a la literatura acerca de las temáticas referentes a la violencia social, conceptualización de Otro, prácticas sociales y procesos educativos, así como la indicación de algunas investigaciones ya realizadas, como posibilidades intencionalizadas a un mundo más justo, dialógico y, por lo tanto, , humanizado. Cuestionar a si, respetar, confiar, tener empatía, dialogar y caminar en la cara a cara son acciones de amorosidad imperativas al reconocimiento de la humanidad del Otro y, por tanto, de nuestros propios procesos de superación de la violencia social. Así, se hace posible la construcción de lazos y costuras mutuamente solidarias, en la apertura al desvelar(se) y el tejer de los procesos educativos a lo largo de la convivencia dialógica, investigativa o no, en prácticas sociales.Palabras clave: Procesos Educativos. Violencia Social. Convivencia Dialógica.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-531
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Hidalgo

Abstract This response discusses the conjunction of “queer,” “temporalities,” and “biblical interpretation.” I argue that these essays demonstrate, through their turn to queer temporalities, that attending to queer time means attending to people in time, to their social practices, to dynamics of power, to violence, to survival, to the lost pasts whose voices still call out to our own, and to the choices we make in reading. The response also turns to borderlands theories, especially the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, and decolonial feminist thought, particularly that of María Lugones, in order to ask questions about biblical studies that cross borders.


2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Carter ◽  
Simon Duncan

Marriage rates in twenty-first-century Britain are historically low, divorce and separation are historically high, and marriage is no longer generally seen as necessary for legitimate sexual relationships, long-term partnership or even parenting. Yet at the same time weddings have become more prominent, both as social aspiration and as popular culture. But why have a wedding, especially an ornate, expensive and time-consuming wedding, when there appears to be little social need to do so? Similarly, weddings have never been more free from cultural norms and official control – so why do these supposedly unique and deeply personal events usually replay the same assumed traditions? We draw from a small qualitative sample of 15 interviews with white, heterosexual celebrants to address these questions. While existing accounts posit weddings as a social display of success, emphasizing distinction, and manipulation by a powerful wedding industry, we argue that weddings involve celebrants necessarily adapting from, and re-serving, tradition as a process of bricolage. This shapes the four major discourses interviewees used to give meanings to their weddings: the project of the couple, relationality, re-traditionalization and romanticized consumption. At the same time many couples did not want to be distinctively unique, but rather distinctively normal. This is what we call ‘individualized conformity’.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Maysar Sarieddine

Jung’s concept of the shadow will be applied to cases of violence against women in the regional context of theMiddle East. This paper will present an explanation of the reasons why Middle Eastern women are often subject togender inequality and violence against women. In order to do so, Jung’s conception of archetypes will be applied tothe specific cultural context of the Middle East.Objective: To further understanding of gender inequality in the Middle East.Methods: Phenomenology/Analytic PsychologyResults: Liberation from violence from men is the women’s shadow since this is a desire which they deny orconsciously ignore primarily because it is in contrast with societal and cultural norms that teach them to besubmissive and inferior to males.Conclusions: Women should identify, understand, and reveal this shadow. Once revealed, women will realize theirrights, particularly to be free from acts of discrimination and violence, and can begin to fight for these rights and forempowerment.


2019 ◽  
pp. 204-219
Author(s):  
Elena Flores Ruíz

This essay addresses structural violence against Latinas by looking at the existential toll different forms of cultural violence take on us. In particular, it looks at linguistic violence and the role lesser-known violences play in the intergenerational continuation of colonial violence, such as hermeneutic violence. Defined as violence done to systems of meaning and interpretation, hermeneutic violence is discussed at length in relation to the experience of harm and injury. The essay further explores some resistant epistemic practices Latina feminists have generated to address systemic violence. The work of Gloria Anzaldúa is elaborated as an example of resistant epistemic practices.


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