Displacement, women intellectuals and entangled knowledge in the making of global modernity

Abstract

This article offers a perspective on how the proposed conceptualisation of the idea of displacement can be used to analyse processes of knowledge formation and transformation brought about by the movement of intellectuals in modernity. It develops a theoretical framework that considers the acts of cultural mediation and spatial displacement as key aspects for understanding the structures of knowledge and cultural interpretation produced in the formation of modernity. Making use of historical–sociological tools, it examines biographical information along with the intellectual contributions of two female intellectuals, Flora Tristan (1803–1844) and Nísia Floresta (1810–1855). This contribution seeks to re-address the problem how to understand modernity from a decentred point of view. It procdeds by discussing how the history of modernity and its different cultural manifestations should be analysed with greater attention to practices of mediation and theoretical interpretations as developed by lesser-known intellectuals. Thus, the article also contributes to analysing the agency of women intellectuals in the history of modernity.