Discusses Ann Petry's short story, "Like a Winding Sheet" (1946), in the context of black feminist literary theory, exploring the possibility of developing a reading strategy that does not replicate the effacement of black women's subjectivities. Petry's story is read as a delineation of the impossible position of black female flesh in US cultural discourse; the black female subject is erased & simultaneously constructed as ungendered flesh. It is suggested that black feminist literary criticism has failed to create a vocabulary that speaks to the specificity & diversity of African American women's experiences in the US. Instead, it has worked against the available cultural categories to reduce the complexity of black female lives to the status of incoherent differences. Merely being heard will not solve the problem of black female unrepresentability; a theorization of the discursive conditions that allow complex subjects to be rendered as singular social agents is advocated. D. M. Smith
The story of the skin woman is about a woman so admired for her skin that her substance & weight are ignored. This story is a metaphor for capitalism that puts commodity fetishism at the center of social relations. Under capitalism, people have lost their sense of humanity & are alienated from relating to humans. Racist logic in the public workplace has reified things & material goods. The private space of the home may offer a place to regain human comforts -- comfort with our bodies, our flesh, & our authenticity. 7 References. M. Pflum
Looks to Pierre Bourdieu to flesh out Jurgen Habermas's thought on the public sphere, arguing that Bourdieu provides a potent critique of the role of systematic distortions in public discourse. At issue is revealing the shape of his socioanalytic critique. Discussion opens by delineating differences between Bourdieu's & Habermas's conceptions of public reason. Bourdieu is said to have adopted a communicative conception of rationality that provides an avenue for critical scrutiny of Habermas's transcendental ideas on communicative reason. Bourdieu is seen to attend to public discourse's unconscious adaptation of contaminating influences. In considering the systematic distortions that undermine rational deliberation, the issue of colonization is addressed in terms of the relative autonomy of fields as a key constraint on public discourse. To show how Bourdieu's field model of rationality allows the reading of distortions in the communications produced in fields characterized by a high degree of autonomy, his reading of Martin Heidegger is scrutinized, referring to his method as a "suspicious hermeneutics." Attention turns to Boudieu's notion of doxa (cultural unconscious) & how his observations shed light on the systematically distorted character of public communication & provides for a socioanalytic epistemology. Bourdieu indicates the role of the historical/cultural unconscious in the process of political legitimation. In terms of participation in the public sphere, it is then shown how Bourdieu is able to discern various unconscious factors that exclude some from public debate & impede the possibility of understanding & just discussion between parties. Bourdieu is interested in how social position as manifest in habitus & capital defines individuals' form of participation, the nature of their communication, & the authority underwriting their speech. It is concluded that Bourdieu's program advances a definition of critical theory & provides the tools to continue the exploration of the systematically distorted communication in the public sphere initiated by Habermas. 3 Graphs, 48 References. J. Zendejas
Looks to Pierre Bourdieu to flesh out Jurgen Habermas's thought on the public sphere, arguing that Bourdieu provides a potent critique of the role of systematic distortions in public discourse. At issue is revealing the shape of his socioanalytic critique. Discussion opens by delineating differences between Bourdieu's & Habermas's conceptions of public reason. Bourdieu is said to have adopted a communicative conception of rationality that provides an avenue for critical scrutiny of Habermas's transcendental ideas on communicative reason. Bourdieu is seen to attend to public discourse's unconscious adaptation of contaminating influences. In considering the systematic distortions that undermine rational deliberation, the issue of colonization is addressed in terms of the relative autonomy of fields as a key constraint on public discourse. To show how Bourdieu's field model of rationality allows the reading of distortions in the communications produced in fields characterized by a high degree of autonomy, his reading of Martin Heidegger is scrutinized, referring to his method as a "suspicious hermeneutics." Attention turns to Boudieu's notion of doxa (cultural unconscious) & how his observations shed light on the systematically distorted character of public communication & provides for a socioanalytic epistemology. Bourdieu indicates the role of the historical/cultural unconscious in the process of political legitimation. In terms of participation in the public sphere, it is then shown how Bourdieu is able to discern various unconscious factors that exclude some from public debate & impede the possibility of understanding & just discussion between parties. Bourdieu is interested in how social position as manifest in habitus & capital defines individuals' form of participation, the nature of their communication, & the authority underwriting their speech. It is concluded that Bourdieu's program advances a definition of critical theory & provides the tools to continue the exploration of the systematically distorted communication in the public sphere initiated by Habermas. 3 Graphs, 48 References. J. Zendejas
