The Haunting of Flat Texts: Liberal Discourse and the Elision of Labour

IF 0.1 4区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
Paddy Gordon
{"title":"The Haunting of Flat Texts: Liberal Discourse and the Elision of Labour","authors":"Paddy Gordon","doi":"10.1080/20512856.2022.2159712","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using a method informed by hauntology, this article reads the discourse produced by two activist-influencers – Jordan Peterson and Clementine Ford – who currently define the liberal tradition’s reactionary and progressive boundaries. Locating consistent elisions of a rich concept of labour in the work of these representatives of contemporary liberalism, this article contends that a rich and multifaceted concept of human labour has historically been absent in liberal discourses. Indeed, it claims that it is by eliding labour’s conceptual plurality and political possibility that liberal discourses proceed and proliferate. Contemporary discursive ecologies contain multiple sites of reception, and the textual logic of social media often structures more traditional liberal texts. Despite this, long-standing structural elisions continue to constrain what liberal discourses can express. These elisions explain the inability of liberal discourses to adequately account for our current social conditions. Nor can these discourses imagine a future in which we achieve collective emancipation from the intersecting economic, environmental and epidemiological crises that haunt the present. This article argues that human labour – including and even especially the labour of care – is the liberal tradition’s foundational elision.","PeriodicalId":40530,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Literature and Culture","volume":"69 1","pages":"90 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Language Literature and Culture","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20512856.2022.2159712","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using a method informed by hauntology, this article reads the discourse produced by two activist-influencers – Jordan Peterson and Clementine Ford – who currently define the liberal tradition’s reactionary and progressive boundaries. Locating consistent elisions of a rich concept of labour in the work of these representatives of contemporary liberalism, this article contends that a rich and multifaceted concept of human labour has historically been absent in liberal discourses. Indeed, it claims that it is by eliding labour’s conceptual plurality and political possibility that liberal discourses proceed and proliferate. Contemporary discursive ecologies contain multiple sites of reception, and the textual logic of social media often structures more traditional liberal texts. Despite this, long-standing structural elisions continue to constrain what liberal discourses can express. These elisions explain the inability of liberal discourses to adequately account for our current social conditions. Nor can these discourses imagine a future in which we achieve collective emancipation from the intersecting economic, environmental and epidemiological crises that haunt the present. This article argues that human labour – including and even especially the labour of care – is the liberal tradition’s foundational elision.
扁平文本的困扰:自由话语与劳动的省略
摘要本文采用了一种由闹鬼学提供的方法,阅读了两位活动家影响者——Jordan Peterson和Clementine Ford——所产生的话语,他们目前定义了自由主义传统的反动和进步边界。在这些当代自由主义代表的作品中,对丰富的劳动概念的一贯省略,本文认为,丰富而多方面的人类劳动概念在历史上一直没有出现在自由主义话语中。事实上,它声称,正是通过消除劳工的概念多元性和政治可能性,自由主义话语才得以进行和扩散。当代话语生态包含多个接受场所,社交媒体的文本逻辑通常构建更传统的自由主义文本。尽管如此,长期存在的结构省略仍然限制着自由主义话语所能表达的内容。这些省略解释了自由主义话语无法充分解释我们当前的社会状况。这些论述也无法想象我们在未来实现集体解放,摆脱困扰当前的交叉经济、环境和流行病危机。这篇文章认为,人类劳动——包括甚至特别是护理劳动——是自由主义传统的基本省略。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
2
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信