Comments on: What would Bakhtin do? http://harlotofthearts.org/blog/2008/09/01/what-would-bakhtin-do/ Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:58:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David Beard http://harlotofthearts.org/blog/2008/09/01/what-would-bakhtin-do/comment-page-1/#comment-71 David Beard Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:59:41 +0000 http://rhetoricalcommons.org/harlot/?p=186#comment-71 The Bakhtinian rogue or carnivalesque should probably be tempered by the Foucaultian parrhesiaste and Julien Benda's intellectual. The parrhesiaste is the figure in classical culture who speaks truth to power, fearlessly. Benda's intellectual speaks the truth even at risk of political, personal and professional consequences -- at risk, even, Benda says, of being burned at the stake. There is trouble in "truth" in these writers -- neither is referring to some ideal truth that we, in our post-post condition, know to be impossible. So don't let that turn you away. Instead focus on the bravery of the act in the face of consequences. David The Bakhtinian rogue or carnivalesque should probably be tempered by the Foucaultian parrhesiaste and Julien Benda’s intellectual.

The parrhesiaste is the figure in classical culture who speaks truth to power, fearlessly.

Benda’s intellectual speaks the truth even at risk of political, personal and professional consequences — at risk, even, Benda says, of being burned at the stake.

There is trouble in “truth” in these writers — neither is referring to some ideal truth that we, in our post-post condition, know to be impossible. So don’t let that turn you away. Instead focus on the bravery of the act in the face of consequences.

David

]]> By: Katie http://harlotofthearts.org/blog/2008/09/01/what-would-bakhtin-do/comment-page-1/#comment-72 Katie Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:55:31 +0000 http://rhetoricalcommons.org/harlot/?p=186#comment-72 P.S. Oh, yeah -- and how do we acknowledge and negotiate the position of power of "scholars"? P.S. Oh, yeah — and how do we acknowledge and negotiate the position of power of “scholars”?

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