THE AGENCY OF LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL DISCOURSE
Language appears in various aspects and many facets of communication. However, the growing concern of encountering a language characterized by and constructed around an inherent ferocity highlights the strong interface between language and cultural, political, and sociological objectives and ideologies. The linguistic compositions that produce strategically vicious discourses communicated via digital media emphasize the heterogeneity within this conceptual framework. Apart from the consequences of what such strong rhetoric can invoke, such as crimes or suicides, the questions arise: To what extent is it possible to counteract such violent rhetoric in the articulation of humanitarian voices? How can language be used to advance new collaborative discourses?
In an interview with Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), Julia Kristeva questions him on the notion of ‘meaning.’ Derrida responds: “It is true that at first the phenomenological extension of the concept of ‘meaning,’ appears much wider, much less determined. All experience is experience of meaning. Everything that appears to consciousness, everything that is for consciousness in general is meaning. Ednie Kaeh Garrison likewise notes:“[L] anguage has the power to shape consciousness.” Therefore, language provides a conceptual frame that embeds underlying power structures and ideologies.
This session is dedicated to exploring language that counteracts the linguistic construction of a violent rhetoric in all of its iterations. We invite papers that look at the agency of language in a humanitarian sense as it emerges in diverse cultural, political, or linguistic forms. What role does consciousness take in the structure of language?
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Gender, identity, and Intersectionality
- Contemporary political dialogues and debates
- Language theory
- Responses to acts of violence
- Psychology and psychoanalysis