The Materiality of Language

David Bleich

Description

Winner, 2014 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award

Listen to an interview with the author on New Books in Language

David Bleich sees the human body, its affective life, social life, and political functions as belonging to the study of language. In The Materiality of Language, Bleich addresses the need to end centuries of limiting access to language and its many contexts of use. To recognize language as material and treat it as such, argues Bleich, is to remove restrictions to language access due to historic patterns of academic censorship and unfair gender practices. Language is understood as a key path in the formation of all social and political relations, and becomes available for study by all speakers, who may regulate it, change it, and make it flexible like other material things.

Introduction: The Contested Subject
Part One: The Materiality of Language
Chapter 1: Premises and Backgrounds
Chapter 2: Received Standards in the Study of Language
Chapter 3: Materiality and Genre
Chapter 4: The Unity of Language and Thought
Chapter 5: Materiality and the Contemporary Study of Language
Chapter 6: Recognizing Politics in the Study of Language
Part Two: Language in the University
Chapter 7: Frustrations of Academic Language
Chapter 8: The Protected Institution
Chapter 9: The Sacred Language
Chapter 10: Language Uses in Science, the Heir of Latin
Chapter 11: Language and Human Survival
Chapter 12: The Materiality of Literature and the Contested Subject
Works Cited and Consulted
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie du langage
• Gender Studies
• Literary Criticism
• PHILOSOPHY
• EDUCATION
• Philosophy of language
• Higher
• Level
• Literary theory
• Theory
• Semiotics
• School
• Language
• Higher education
• Langage

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 28 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253007735
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE MATERIALITY OF LANGUAGE
The MATERIALITY of LANGUAGE
GENDER, POLITICS, AND THE UNIVERSITY
David Bleich
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 E. 10th St.
Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
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2013 by David Bleich
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bleich, David.
The materiality of language : gender, politics, and the university / David Bleich.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00771-1 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00772-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00773-5 (eb) 1. Language and languages Philosophy. 2. Rhetoric. 3. Academic language. 4. Colloquial language. 5. Language and languages-Political aspects. 6. Language and languages-Sex differences. I. Title.
P107.B585 2013
401-dc23
2012046669
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
Since I find that no one, before myself, has dealt in any way with the theory of eloquence in the vernacular, and since we can plainly see that such eloquence is necessary to everyone-for not only men, but also women and children strive to acquire it, as far as nature allows-I shall try, inspired by the Word that comes from above, to say something useful about the language of people who speak the vulgar tongue, hoping thereby to enlighten somewhat the understanding of those who walk the streets like the blind, ever thinking that what lies ahead is behind them. Yet, in so doing, I shall not bring to so large a cup only the water of my own thinking, but shall add to it more potent ingredients, taken or extracted from elsewhere, so that from these I may concoct the sweetest possible mead .
But since it is required of any theoretical treatment that it not leave its basis implicit, but declare it openly, so that it may be clear with what its argument is concerned, I say, hastening to deal with the question, that I call vernacular language that which infants acquire from those around them when they first begin to distinguish sounds: or, to put it more succinctly, I declare that vernacular language is that which we learn without any formal instruction, by imitating our nurses. There also exists another kind of language, at one remove from us, which the Romans called gramatica. . . . The Greeks and some - but not all - other peoples also have this secondary kind or language. Few, however, achieve complete fluency in it, since knowledge of its rules and theory can only be developed through dedication to a lengthy course of study .
Of these two kinds of language, the more noble is the vernacular: first, because it was the language originally used by the human race; second, because the whole world employs it, though with different pronunciations and using different words; and third, because it is natural to us, while the other is, in contrast, artificial .
And this more noble kind of language is what I intend to discuss .
- Dante Alighieri , De vulgari eloquentia (1303-1305)
Yet, having looked through this book [by Matheolus], . . . an extraordinary thought became planted in my mind which made me wonder why on earth it was that so many men, both clerks and others, have said and continue to say and write such awful, damning things about women and their ways. I was at a loss as to how to explain it. It is not just a handful of writers who do this, . . . It is all manner of philosophers, poets, and orators too numerous to mention, who all seem to speak with one voice and are unanimous in their view that female nature is wholly given up to vice .
. . . given that I could scarcely find a moral work by any author which didn t devote some chapter or paragraph to attacking the female sex, I had to accept their unfavorable opinion of women since it was unlikely that so many learned men . . . could possibly have lied on so many different occasions .
- Christine de Pizan , Le Livre de la Cit des Dames, 1405
BRIEF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Contested Subject
P ART O NE . T HE M ATERIALITY OF L ANGUAGE
1. Premises and Backgrounds
2. Received Standards in the Study of Language
3. Materiality and Genre
4. The Unity of Language and Thought
5. Materiality and the Contemporary Study of Language
6. Recognizing Politics in the Study of Language
P ART T WO . L ANGUAGE IN THE U NIVERSITY
7. Frustrations of Academic Language
8. The Protected Institution
9. The Sacred Language
10. Language Uses in Science, the Heir of Latin
11. Language and Human Survival
12. The Materiality of Literature and the Contested Subject
Bibliography
Index
DETAILED CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Contested Subject
P ART O NE : T HE M ATERIALITY OF L ANGUAGE
Chapter 1: Premises and Backgrounds
I .
The Materiality of Language and the Sacralization of Texts
II .
Access to Language
III .
Limited Access in Education and Total Mediation in Society
IV .
Nominalism
Chapter 2: Received Standards in the Study of Language
I .
Language as a Contested Subject Matter
II .
Lorenzo Valla s Challenges
III .
The Humanistic Study of Language
IV .
Language and Knowledge
V .
Condillac s Search for Origins
VI .
Many Languages and the Enlightened University
VII .
Modern Standards
Chapter 3: Materiality and Genre
I .
Materiality from Nominalism
II .
Genre as a Language Function
III .
Wittgenstein s Second Opinion
III-1. Sprachspiel
III-2. Life Forms
III-3. Family Resemblance
III-4. Description Instead of Explanation
III-5. Ordinary Language: Access in Plain Sight
IV .
Austin and Speech Action
V .
Bakhtin s Speech Genres and National Languages
VI .
Whorf and Linguistic Relativity
VII .
Academic Resistance to Materiality
Chapter 4: The Unity of Language and Thought
I .
Enlightenment and Other Values
II .
Hamann, the Magician
III .
Figuration
IV .
Contradiction, Neologism
V .
Translation
VI .
Julia Kristeva and the Struggle with Gender
VII .
Materiality, the Offspring of Maternality
Chapter 5: Materiality and the Contemporary Study of Language
I .
The Stubborn Nativist Premise
II .
Terrence Deacon and Evolutionary Explanation
III .
Studying Infantile Language Acquisition
IV .
Recognizing Affect in Language Acquisition
V .
Language Acquisition and the Integration of Body, Self, and Society
VI .
The Mutual Dependency of Naming and Predication
Chapter 6: Recognizing Politics in the Study of Language
I .
Language, Politics, Gender
II .
Linguistics Second Opinion
III .
Interpreting the Present
IV .
Struggles for Access to Language
V .
The Materiality of a Subaltern Dialect
VI .
Recasting the Study of Language
P ART T WO : L ANGUAGE IN THE U NIVERSITY
Chapter 7: Frustrations of Academic Language
I .
Sacralization and Abstraction
II .
The Writing of Many Books
III .
Freud s Repression and Other Limits
IV .
It s a Paradox
V .
Agonism
VI .
Protection as a Principle of Academic Governance
Chapter 8: The Protected Institution
I .
Protection in the Early University
II .
The Men s Association
III .
Peter Abelard s Effects
IV .
University Formation as a Reaction against Abelard
V .
The Unchanging Curriculum
VI .
Changes in Reading Practices
VII .
Empirical Science and Other Troublemakers
VIII .
New Values, New Languages
Chapter 9: The Sacred Language
I .
The Ascendancy of Latin
II .
Literacy and Access to Language
III .
Heresy and the Opposition to New Language
III-1. Crimes of Language Use
III-2. Wyclif and the Lollards
III-3. Servetus and the Trinity
IV .
Witch-hunting and the Fear of Mothers Tongues
V .
Learned Latin
Chapter 10: Language Uses in Science, the Heir of Latin
I .
The Heir of Latin
II .
Objectification and Gender Identity
III .
Science and Objectivity
IV .
Normalizing Abstractions
V .
Instinct, Intelligence, and Other Placeholders
VI .
Laws of Nature
VII .
The Big Bang
VIII .
Intimations of Language Change in Physics
Chapter 11: Language and Human Survival
I .
Nukespeak
II .
Instinctive Aggression, Paradoxical Violence
II-1. Konrad Lorenz
II-2. J. L. Talmon
III .
Explanation without Paradox: Virginia Woolf
IV .
Languages of Dependency and Survival
Chapter 12: The Materiality of Literature and the Contested Subject
I .
The Separation of Literature from Language
II .
The Isolation of Obscene Language
III .
Obscene Literature and the Reading Public
IV .
The Double Voice and the Materiality of Literature
V .
Erotica and Political Action
VI .
Literature and the Contested Subject
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During the writing of this book, my conversations with former students about their teaching and scholarship, and about their classrooms as experienced, have been a continuing stimulation in studying this contested subject of language. I want to thank Mary R. Boland, Lisa De Tora, Jennifer Keating-Miller, Miriam Margala, Chuck Ripley, and Scott Stevens, who were students at the University of Rochester; and Elisabeth Daeumer, Tom Fox, Sally Barr Reagan, Philip Sicks, and Karen Veith at Indi