Epistemologies with no name: Normalistas-teachers and their metaphorical knowledge

Abstract

Normalistas-teachers are not recognized as providers of epistemic insights in the development of knowledge. Canonical elites have excluded ordinary and anonymous people as active subjects in the epistemic construction of knowledge. In part, this is because normalistas-teachers make their epistemic contributions through non-traditional vehicles of knowledge, in other words, through metaphorical knowledge. This article looks at the case of one normalista-teacher, Vicky Rodríguez, and the epistemic insights she offers in one of her literary works, La Noria (The Water Borehole). This study addresses this research question: what epistemic notions does the normalista-teacher, Vicky Rodríguez, offer through her work, La Noria? This study utilizes the method of looking at the relationship between philosophy and literature developed by the Mexican–Catalan philosopher, Ramón Xirau, to study primary sources. The findings show how Vicky Rodríguez, like other normalistas-teachers, offers a critical epistemological notion of immediate power and whether or not there is a way of escape from it.