Questions of Silence: On the Emancipatory Limits of Voice and the Coloniality of Silence

Ferrari, Martina

doi:10.1017/hyp.2019.9

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…By focusing more on silences, we can stress the importance of what cannot be said (Spivak, 1988: 82). In addition, Ferrari (2020) In the data that I have presented, there are some glimpses of hope. Hydran uses the metaphor of a half-moon when he says:…”

Section: Dystopia/utopiamentioning

confidence: 96%

Engaging dystopia: linguistic citizenship and migrant voice

Oostendorp¹

2021

M.M

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Stroud (2015: 36) recently emphasized the utopian dimensions of linguistic citizenship as “where encounters can be reconstituted as an arena for the negotiation of difference rather than the imposition of commonality (in language, speech norms, or social identity).” A prominent feature of this utopic view of linguistic citizenship is agency and voice and the imagining of a different way of living through language. In this paper I want to draw not on examples of agency and voice, but on silence. This paper reports on a project that used an arts-based approach to investigate narratives of two groups of African migrants living in South Africa. This paper will investigate linguistic citizenship from a particularly dystopian perspective, in the sense of “a utopia that functions only for a particular segment of society” (Gordin, Tilley & Prakash 2010). Thus, the paper focusses on a lack of voice, not silence out of resistance, but the kind of silence that comes from an inability to speak. Stroud (2015: 37) states that linguistic citizenship “invites us to talk about language in visionary and utopian terms by encouraging reflection on the way in which the humanity of each of us depends on respectful recognition of, and engagement with, the linguistically mediated humanity of others”. This paper will investigate linguistic citizenship from the perspectives of those who have been stripped of humanity, and who choose not to talk. Specifically, I interrogate how silence fits into a utopian view of linguistic citizenship.

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Section: Dystopia/utopiamentioning

confidence: 96%

Engaging dystopia: linguistic citizenship and migrant voice

Oostendorp¹

2021

M.M

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“…This notion of intersectionality fundamentally influenced feminist discussions on silence. For example, scholars who speak of the 'racialization of silence' (Ferrari 2020) challenge the assumption that 'silence' is associated with patriarchal domination. This assumption reflects the common experience of white middle class women, who led the second wave feminist movement in Euro-American contexts.…”

Section: Feminist Traditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They thereby highlight that the notions of 'having a voice', of 'breaking the silence', or of 'speaking up' may be insufficient as instruments of liberation. This leads them to call for a more nuanced analysis of multiplicity of silences (Ferrari 2020). We need to be aware that more often than not 'the "voice," "speech," or "languages" of the colonized do not conform to Eurocentered, capitalist, colonial modern criteria' in which 'speaking up' is associated with liberatory movements (Ferrari 2020, 134) [1952] 2012, xii).…”

Section: Feminist Traditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silence

Dragojlovic,

Samuels

2023

OEA

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“…Ferrari’s claim that, often, ‘silences […] are eviscerated of their complexity and ambiguity, read as instances of complacency and or submission’ (2020: 124) provides an important caution. She suggests that we too often respond to silence in a way that ‘eviscerates deep silences of their depth and complexity, flattening them to a transparent, mono-dimensional phenomenon indexing ontological absence’ (Ferrari, 2020: 125). If we ever become capable of responding to women’s silences about sexual assault not as symptoms of damage, but as a defence of the wanted-meanings of one’s life, we will have taken real steps towards understanding the relationship between rape and social death.…”

Section: Eight: Silencementioning

confidence: 99%

Rape and social death

Mann

2021

Feminist Theory

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Rape that does not involve life-threatening physical violence, is committed by someone known to the victim, and is not reported to law enforcement (called, here, commonplace rape) raises two questions: “Why didn't she fight back or run away?” and “Why didn't she say anything at the time?” Recently, research on “tonic immobility,” based on animal predation studies, has provided a physiological explanation for experiences of immobilization during sexual assault. The juxtaposition of animal predation with commonplace sexual assault raises the question: How is it that a response reserved, in animals, for lethal, no-way-out scenarios is present in modes of violation where the victim does not report fear of death or extreme physical harm? Neither does this research help explain why women fail to report. This philosophical exploration of the meaning of tonic immobility in sexual assault helps to justify the juxtaposition of life-or-death scenarios with less-than-life-threatening violation, and sheds light on the reason for women's silence after sexual assault. Rape is accompanied by deep historical meanings that can be encapsulated in the notion of “social death,” associated in the U.S. with colonial conquest, enslavement, and impoverishment. The specter of social death haunts commonplace rape, producing life or death responses.

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Questions of Silence: On the Emancipatory Limits of Voice and the Coloniality of Silence

Cited by 16 publications

References 18 publications

Engaging dystopia: linguistic citizenship and migrant voice

Engaging dystopia: linguistic citizenship and migrant voice

Silence

Rape and social death

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