Discursive Universe Research Articles

Jan Goldstein, Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy: The Case of Nanette Leroux (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010), pp. xi + 246, £20.95/$29.95, hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-691-01186-8.

Jan Goldstein, Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy: The Case of Nanette Leroux (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010), pp. xi + 246, £20.95/$29.95, hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-691-01186-8. - Volume 55 Issue 4

From modernity through postmodernity to reflexive modernization. Did we learn anything?

Modernization, in the sociological tradition, was usually understood as increasing differentiation. Theorists as different as Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Parsons all shared the view that modernization meant the opening of new horizons. The publication of Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition transformed the discursive universe: contrary to the tradition of differentiation theoretical sociology the pamphlet interpreted modernization as a process in which the plurality of local cultural traditions was destroyed and their various narratives were rearticulated into a unified modern canon under the repressive meta-narratives of science, progress and the Enlightenment. At first, sociologists were at odds with this new interpretation until Beck, Giddens and Lash brought up the idea of modernity in two phases in their Reflexive Modernization (1994) and related publications. According to them, ‘traditional modernity’ was based on cultural closures, such as unified class-identities, nationalities and fixed gender-identities, but it was followed by a ‘second’ or ‘reflexive modernity’, where several traditions lived side by side, just as the postmodernists claimed. An intense debate emerged. The article asks: did we learn anything from the debate on reflexive modernization and if so, can the learnt lessons be used fruitfully in the study of contemporary society? The answer seems to be negative for the most part. However, the modernization theoretical approach can still be seen as a useful tool for framing research questions and contributing to the diagnosis of the era. This is how it can still provide a point of departure for research, but not deliver all the answers.

Conjuring a river, imagining civilisation

The depiction of the river Saraswati as an empirical centre of the Harappan civilisation has been marked by intense debate in recent years. Taking the short-lived Saraswati Heritage Project (2002–04) initiated by the Archaeological Survey of India as a case study, this article examines the epistemological emergence of the river and interrogates its historical and ideological relationship to the Harappans and the Aryans. It argues that the epistemic trajectory of Saraswati from a literary entity to an empirical category followed four phases. First, it emerged as a mythical river of colonial Indology; then, as a civilisational river of colonial archaeology; subsequently, as a hydrological body of postcolonial geology and, finally, as an empirical fact of postcolonial archaeology and history. Contrary to historians who attribute the resurrection of the Saraswati solely to the growing influence of Hindutva ideologies, this article argues that the Saraswati is also an epistemic product of the disciplinarian discourse of colonial Indology and postcolonial science. It contends that its ideological and political valence has to be located in the larger discursive universe of colonial and postcolonial scientific practices and not solely attributed to Hindutva.

ESTRATÉGIA: ACORDOS, DESACORDOS E REVISÕES SOBRE O TEMA

<p>Amplamente utilizado nas teorias organizacionais e gerenciais contemporâneas, e no universo discursivo da consultoria empresarial, o termo estratégia se tornou alvo de atenção e de significados, definições e modelos diversos. Autores celebram esta diversidade, ou pelo menos a<br />consideram inevitável, em função da riqueza semântica do vocábulo e da natureza intrinsecamente complexa e mutável daquilo que se acostumou tratar como estratégia no contexto das organizações (MINTZBERG; LAMPEL; AHLSTRAND, 2000; SMIRCICH; STUBBART, 1985; SNOW; HREBINIAK, 1980). Outros defendem alguma disciplina no campo, sobretudo, para facilitar o acúmulo de conhecimento, por meio da utilização sistemática de um conjunto de conceitos – e alternativas para sua operacionalização – razoavelmente aceito (VENKATRAMAN;<br />GRANT, 1986). Este artigo teve por objetivo revisitar o conceito de estratégia e seu uso corrente na administração, desde o seu uso específico, tais como em gestão estratégica de pessoas, estratégia de comunicação, ou sua aplicação geral, como no posicionamento organizacional, que é a alma, a personalidade, a razão de ser da empresa.<br /><br /></p>

Considerações sobre a escrita lacaniana dos discursos

A escrita lacaniana dos discursos é composta de elementos (letras), lugares (quadrantes) e funções (operadores lógicos). Cada um dos discursos formalizados por Lacan é composto pela distribuição peculiar dessas letras nesses lugares e funções. Lacan estabeleceu, desse modo, uma estrutura própria para cada um dos quatro discursos: o discurso psicanalítico, o discurso do mestre, o discurso histérico e o discurso universitário. Examinamos a construção lógica feita por Lacan - principalmente no Seminário 17, O avesso da psicanálise - para cada um desses discursos, ressaltando suas consistências, aproximações e contrastes. Pretende-se demonstrar como a devida consideração à teoria lacaniana dos discursos pode ser um importante meio de abordagem psicanalítica do sujeito por meio de seu universo discursivo.

De Peirce a Charaudeau: As qualidades do poético ilustradas por Ziraldo

Este trabalho, privilegiando a emergência do sentido poético, pretende analisar aspectos do processo semiótico. Nessa análise, a semiose é explicada não só pelos diferentes modos de significação — icônico, indicial e simbólico (PEIRCE, 2003) —, mas também pela confluência de elementos oriundos da superfície textual, do discurso e da situação comunicativa (CHARAUDEAU, 2001). A reflexão será ilustrada por textos sincréticos de literatura infantil representados por obras de Ziraldo Alves Pinto: O menino quadradinho (1989), O menino mais bonito do mundo (1994a), Uma historinha sem (1) sentido (1994b) e Flicts (1999).
 
 Palavras-chave: Semiose. Sincretismo. Literatura infantil. Ziraldo. Poético.

Children of the Father King: Youth, Authority, and Legal Minority in Colonial Lima

Children of the Father King: Youth, Authority, and Legal Minority in Colonial Lima

Discursive Battles about the Meaning of University: The Case of Danish University Reform and its Academics

The meaning of university and, subsequently, academics' working conditions are rapidly changing as knowledge economy and globalisation discourses continue to deepen across the Western world. Higher education and research agendas are increasingly staged in the discursive universe of knowledge economy language: common strategies and harmonisation within Europe (the Bologna process), integration of universities into national knowledge economy strategies that adapt to signals from the World Trade Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, etc. Illustrated by the case of Danish university reform, this article traces the transition from a vanishing ‘democratic and “Humboldtian”’ university discourse‘ toward an emerging ‘market and efficiency oriented university discourse‘. Universities are being turned into organisations with self-ownership, which allegedly increases their freedom of operation on the research and education ‘market‘. On the other hand, universities are under increased pressure to satisfy government demands, often at hitherto unknown levels of detail. Seen from the point of view of the academic worker, these processes become visible through a host of new social technologies that individualise and totalise researchers simultaneously through complex processes. The article highlights the point that constructive critique and fruitful counter-strategies must incorporate an in-depth understanding of the radicality of changes that are taking place in order to make a difference.

Cultura e política nos quadrinhos de Henfil

O artigo apresenta uma incursão pelo universo discursivo dos polêmicos personagens "Fradins", criados pelo cartunista Henfil. A intenção é colocar em relevo a construção de uma crítica política e de costumes que colocou em xeque, por um lado, o cristianismo oficioso das elites políticas e religiosas e, por outro, os simulacros sociais. No caso em questão não se trata apenas da crítica à devoção, mas especificamente a devoção ao poder. Defendo a premissa de que por intermédio do grotesco e do fantástico, em conjunto com a ironia e a carnavalização, Henfil desmistificou as deidades políticas e religiosas, substituindo-as pela dúvida e colocando-as lado a lado com o ridículo. Deste modo, o humor henfiliano representou um esforço de resistência, ao mesmo tempo em que contribuiu para a luta política contra a ditadura militar.

"Whorish Old Man" and "One (Animal) Gentleman"

Working with a series of narratives about a family dispute told over more than thirty years by an elderly Tzotzil-speaking Indian, from Chiapas, Mexico, I consider several puzzles about the widely espoused notion of the textual self. Here the voices of others, perhaps more than that of the speaker whose self is being constituted, are centrally incorporated into his ongoing self-reflective biographical account. Moreover, as the narrator moves toward the end of his life, his story seems to lock itself into a closed discursive universe, in which the words of salient others become the repetitive, insistent, and inescapable theme of his self-conception and presentation.

Como trabalhar com "raça" em sociologia

Numa exposição didática, de caráter teórico-metodológico, o autor explica o modo como utiliza em suas pesquisas a categoria "raça", em conexão com outras categorias como "cor", "etnia", "região", "classe", "nação", "povo", "estado", etc. A partir do pressuposto de que os conceitos, teóricos ou não, só podem ser aplicados e entendidos no seu contexto discursivo, o autor estabelece a distinção entre conceitos "analíticos" e "nativos", ou seja, entre categorias retiradas de um corpus teórico e categorias que compõem o próprio universo discursivo dos sujeitos que estão sendo analisados, mas que devem ser utilizados pelo sociólogo. Na parte central do texto, o autor esboça uma história dos significados da categoria "raça" no Brasil e das diversas explicações do caráter das relações entre brancos e negros avançadas pela Sociologia: desde o trabalho pioneiro de Donald Pierson, nos anos 1940, passando pelos estudos da Unesco, nos anos 1950, os trabalhos da chamada "escola paulista", nos anos 1960, e a retomada da teoria da "democracia racial" nos anos mais recentes, em estreito diálogo com os movimentos negros. O autor termina por fazer uma pequena discussão sobre os diversos estímulos, ou perguntas, dados em pesquisas tipo survey, para definição e mensuração da variável cor ou raça.

Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico

Identified only in 1986, the Nahuatl Holy Week play is the earliest known dramatic script in any Native American language. In Holy Wednesday, Louise Burkhart presents side-by-side English translations of the Nahuatl play and its Spanish source. An accompanying commentary analyzes the differences between the two versions to reveal how the native author altered the Spanish text to fit his own aesthetic sensibility and the broader discursive universe of the Nahua church. A richly detailed introduction places both works and their creators within the cultural and political contexts of late sixteenth-century Mexico and Spain.

Locating Frames in the Discursive Universe

Scholars from a range of disciplines use the term ‘frame’ to mean a variety of disjointed and incompatible concepts. This paper examines a range of framing literature, from the writings of authors including Erving Goffman, Tuen van Dijk, Serge Moscovici, George Lakoff, Alan Johnson, William Gamson, David Snow, Robert Benford and Paolo Donati. Then it develops the theoretical case for defining frames as semi-structured elements of discourse which people use to make sense of information they encounter. Additionally, this paper demonstrates the need to include social system frames, which provide patterns for understanding social relations, among the presently acknowledged frame types. Frames develop in parallel with language, vary across cultures, and shape, but are distinct from other extra-linguistic discourse forms, including myths and ideologies.

Stamping the Earth with the Name of Allah:Zikrand the Sacralizing of Space among British Muslims

Recent critical readings of anthropological texts have exposed a tendency to map the discipline's discursive universe of authoritative concepts (hierarchy, segmentary opposition, gift exchange) and authors (Dumont, Evans-Pritchard, Malinowski) as bounded (India, Africa, New Guinea), to use Strathern's apt term (1988:91; see also Appadurai 1986). Strathern's ironic phrase highlights that the mapping of differential knowledges onto culturally constructed space is a commonsensical discursive tendency, deployed not only by anthropologists but also by the people we study, to define topographies of good and evil, truth and falsity. The articles in a recent collection on Muslim societies, for example, disclose the complex geography of sacred knowledge Muslims have recognized since medieval times (Eickelman and Piscatori 1990). According to these studies, the specificity of the location of different forms of Islamic knowledge and spiritual blessing has impelled Muslims to travel to key places in the Islamic world, whereas the places of knowledge gained have served to legitimize various (and sometimes competing) religious leaderships in the Islamic periphery. Hence, as in anthropology, and so too in indigenous ideologies, totemic cultural spaces of knowledge also map, ipso facto, unequal power relations and contested moralities. Space and place are thus widely conceived of, whether in the groves of academia or the rapidly disappearing forests of the postcolonial world, as metaphors for, and metonymic extensions of, culture, moral virtue, identity, truth, hegemony, and subordination. Given the complex symbolic connotations that space and place are endowed with, it is to be expected that the of space, its inscription with a new moral and cultural surface, will be regarded as an act of human empowerment. The present essay discusses such a contemporary and historical process of religious spatial conquest effected by a transnational Sufi regional cult centered in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan and extending into Brit-

The Genealogy of American Pluralism: From Madison to Behavioralism

Although the concept of pluralism is often equated with democracy in the language of American political science, and in accounts of contemporary trends toward democratization in other countries, both the critique of pluralist theory that began in the 1960s and the early history of the concept suggest the need to reflect on that equation. Pluralism is a concept that often appears in the language of politics, but its systematic meaning is largely a function of its use in talking about politics in the discursive universe of political science. The genealogy of pluralism as a descriptive and normative concept in American political science reveals a great deal about both the evolution of the discipline and its understanding of its relationship to politics.