Discourses of Danger

Abstract

Government, media, and medical accounts of Emma Goldman converged to create her public presence in the U.S. as a “dangerous individual.” The prevailing discourses constituted Goldman as violent, utilizing her alleged menace to distract attention from far more egregious violence against labor by state and corporate forces. Goldman responded by denying, confronting, and redirecting the alarmed gaze toward greater risks left underarticulated in hegemonic accounts. Goldman's bold confrontations with authorities constituted a kind of anarchist parrhesia, fearless speech, a relentless truth-telling practice that risked her own security in pursuit of her “beautiful ideal.” The labor of remembering America's history of class violence hones our attention to the complex discursive processes by which some historical facts come to count in prevailing narratives, while others fade into obscurity.

Emma Goldman e as chamas gêmeas da revolta: vida e arte na construção da individualidade humana em leitura anarquista de Max Stirner e Henrik Ibsen

“…Avessa às credenciais anarquistas de uma propaganda puramente instrumental, Goldman incorporou a provocação de "escândalos da verdade" ao diagnosticar e ultrapassar o sectarismo pautado em individualidades anarquistas e não-anarquistas. Como a estudiosa Kathy Ferguson nota, os discursos de perigo propalados por Emma Goldman partem de individualidades insubmissas que convocam até mesmo burocratas, tecendo laços entre vontades aparentemente díspares, provenientes de imigrantes e nativos, artistas e militantes políticos 525 . As coalizões em prol da liberdade de expressão mobilizaram intelectuais e militantes da região nova-iorquina de Greenwich Village.…”