Abstract
Through the process of passage of man's life, there are some conditions and situations wherein he remains silent and he cannot do anything in the response of others. A postmodern French thinker, Jean-François Lyotard articulates that man is forced to be silent in confronting to some situations and conditions. Lyotard states that man is incapable of representing and expressing his own inner emotions and thoughts in some conditions. This situation of unrepresentability and unanswerability is named differend by Lyotard. Due to Lyotard's differend, through reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, the reader can notice that there are some conditions in which some characters are unable to represent and state their own feelings and ideas. In this sense, some black people or characters of the novel are surrounded by the conditions that they cannot utter themselves when they face others, especially white people.
Highlights
Looking at man's life, it can be seen that there are some conditions and situations wherein man is unable to represent and utter what is in his mind in order to answer another person or community
Jean-François Lyotard represents the concept of differend throughout which an individual or a community is being forced into silence while that individual or community needs to talk and express himself or itself against another individual, community, and group
Reading Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the reader finds out some of characters especially Pecola- being raped by her father- unable to defend themselves or herself against the society and situation, she has been condemned to silence which culminates in differend
Summary
Looking at man's life, it can be seen that there are some conditions and situations wherein man is unable to represent and utter what is in his mind in order to answer another person or community. Jae Emerling states: Lyotard continues this line [metanarrative and minornarrative] of thought, adding an ethical imperative, in The Differend He uses the term “differend” to explain the silencing of particular differences that do not fit within larger conceptual or social totalities. It signifies that someone or something has been denied voice or visibility by the dominant ideological system which deems what is and is not unacceptable. Reading Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the reader finds out some of characters especially Pecola- being raped by her father- unable to defend themselves or herself against the society and situation, she has been condemned to silence which culminates in differend. Because of being unable to express themselves lingually and defend themselves against white society of America, they are condemned to stay silent, and those unpleasant events happen to them
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