Speaking from Elsewhere : A New Contextualist Perspective on Meaning, Identity and Discursive Agency

by Medina, Jose

• ISBN13: 9780791469156
• ISBN10: 0791469158
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-05
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

"In Speaking from Elsewhere, author Jose Medina argues for the critical and transformative power of speech from marginalized locations by articulating a contextualist view of meaning, identity, and agency. This contextualism draws from different philosophical traditions (Wittgenstein, pragmatism, and feminist theory) and crosses disciplinary boundaries (philosophy, cultural studies, women's studies, and sociology) to underscore both the diversity of voices and viewpoints and the openness of discursive contexts and practices."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
1. Contextualizing Meaning	1	(52)
1.1. The Indeterminacy of Meaning: "Unnatural Doubts" and "Theoretical Diagnosis"	1	(6)
1.2. Wittgenstein as a Theoretical Diagnostician: Overcoming the Temptations of Reification and Decontextualization	7	(8)
1.3. Contextual Determinacy: Wittgenstein and Dewey on Meaning and Agreement	15	(12)
1.4. Meaning in Context: Semantic Stability and Semantic Change	27	(9)
1.5. Sustaining Agreement in Action: Normalcy and Eccentricity	36	(10)
1.6. A View from Elsewhere	46	(7)
2. Contextualizing Identity	53	(64)
2.1. The Hegelian Connection: Identity, Difference, and Polyphony	58	(42)
2.1.a. The Dialectics of Recognition	60	(24)
2.1.b. To Be and Not to Be: This Mess Called My Identity	84	(16)
2.2. The Flourishing of Voices and Their Domestication	100	(17)
3. Contextualizing Agency	117	(54)
3.1. Fighting Philosophical Myths about Discursive Agency	118	(15)
3.2. On Having a Voice: Uncontrollability, Polyphony, and a Hybrid View of Agency and Responsibility	133	(11)
3.3. The Scandal of Our Agency: Agency without Sovereignty and the Possibility of Transgression	144	(27)
4. Speaking from Elsewhere: Silence, Exclusion, and Marginality	171	(24)
4.1. Contextualism and the Hermeneutics of Silence	175	(7)
4.2. Making Sense of Radical Silences and Exclusions: A Polyphonic Perspective	182	(4)
4.3. Spaces of Intelligibility and Marginality	186	(4)
4.4. Speaking from the Margins	190	(5)
Notes	195	(16)
References	211	(8)
Index	219