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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Violence Through Words: Cultural Aspects and Performative Agency

Ignazia Maria Bartholini

subject

Critical thinkingDiscourse analysisAgency (philosophy)Identity (social science)Gender studiesPerformative utteranceIdentification (psychology)SociologyEuphemismWesternization

description

This chapter aims at describing the ways and ploys used by words (in the various public and private contexts where they define relations) conveying a form of symbolic violence aimed at classifying genders as they play out their respective identity roles. To this end, the author refers to “euphemized discourse” (Bourdieu, 1993) and the concept of “agency” (Duranti, Etnopragmatica. La forza nel parlare. Carocci Editore, Rome, Italy, 2007) in order to describe the process of naturalization of discursive practices geared towards affirmation of the androcentric system of language. Here, a variant of Mediterranean culture which remains patriarchal and sexist is examined by means of discourse analysis of a number of stories written by Andrea Camilleri and the identification of certain “gender-oriented” dialectal lexemes. Even today, this culture continues to oppose the “westernization of [both] critical thinking” and life.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2020-01-01
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52451-7_5