Philosophy & Rhetoric Apr 2019

Combat–Débat: Parataxis and the Unavowable Community; or, The Joke

Stuart J. Murray ; Tad Lemieux Carleton University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Invoking the work of Maurice Blanchot, this text is situated in the (im)possibility of contemporary debate and the impossible, but necessary, question of (un)avowable community. Arguing that identity politics today forecloses debate in the syntactical closures of the named name, we follow Blanchot to open onto a paratactical politics of community. The parataxis (polysyndeton) is here the key trope of community and communication: the side-by-side arrangement of fragments that puts into play the seeming self-evidence of contemporary conjunctions, relations of subordination, and temporal sequence. The parataxis configures relations of alterity, radicalized in death, where the (non)being-in-common of self-other and self-self are exposed. Taking as instance the disaster of Donald Trump's presidency and the digital conveyances of identity, we explore this joke, its common currents, and the possibility for a paratactical politics of community when the joke is on us.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2019-04-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.52.1.0078
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Closed
Topics
argument
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References (11)

  1. Blanchot, Maurice. 1988. The Unavowable Community. Trans. Pierre Joris. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press.
  2. Blanchot, Maurice. 1992. The Step Not Beyond. Trans. Lycette Nelson. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  3. Blanchot, Maurice. 1993. The Infinite Conversation. Trans. Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota…
  4. Blanchot, Maurice. 1995. The Writing of the Disaster. New ed. Trans. Ann Smock. Lincoln: University of Nebras…
  5. Blanchot, Maurice. 2010. Maurice Blanchot: Political Writings, 1953–1993. Trans. Zakir Paul. New York: Fordha…
Show all 11 →
  1. Haider, Shuja. 2017. “The Darkness at the End of the Tunnel: Artificial Intelligence and Neoreaction.” Viewpo…
  2. Hayles, N. Katherine. 1990. “Postmodern Parataxis: Embodied Texts, Weightless Information.” American Literary…
     ↗
  3. Nagle, Angela. 2017. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right. …
  4. Nussbaum, Emily. 2017. “How Jokes Won the Election.” New Yorker, 23 Jan. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/2…
  5. “Parataxis.” 2018. Merriam-Webster.com. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parataxis.
  6. Perelman, Bob. 1993. “Parataxis and Narrative: The New Sentence in Theory and Practice.” American Literature …
     ↗
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