| Popis: |
In this chapter I will deal with a fundamental question implicit in much of my discussion of the theorisation of violence in Chapter 2 as well as in the readings of the texts I offer in the succeeding chapters. Elaine Scarry, perhaps, is responsible for the formulation that pain is inarticulable and indeed, for its establishment as a critical assumption. Her groundbreaking work,The Body in Pain, establishes this premise so thoroughly and with such power that a whole generation of scholars has drawn upon this foundation. The fundamental question is this: why should pain be a distinct category, with its own unique theorisation, within the more general and fundamental problem of linguistic articulation? And why is it so difficult to begin to address this question? This chapter is concerned with both these issues but further, it is concerned with a specific aspect of how we think of violence itself. What terms, tropes, ideologies and methodologies inform this relatively new area of study? Are they born of this new discipline or do we draw upon other ideas and images embedded in other contexts? |
