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Traveling Theory - Edward SAid

theory

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4K views13 pages

Traveling Theory - Edward SAid

theory

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ruben_nahui
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SAID {ike people and schools of criticism, ideas an theories tavel—from per sn to person, from situation t situation, from one period to anther CCltrat and itellctul life are sally noutished and often sustained Dy this circulation of ides, and whether i kes the for of acknowl ‘eiged or unconscious infuence, cretiveborwing or wholesale apo prition, the movement of ideas and theories rm cne place to another ‘oth a fact of life and a usefully enabling concition of intellects! actvi- 'y Having suid that, however, one should go onto specify the kinds of ‘movement that are possible in order to ask wether by virtue of having ‘owed from one place and te to another aides o a thenry gains or oats in strength, and whether a theory in one historical pediod and ‘atonal culture becomes altogether different fr another petiod ost ion. There are particularly intresting eases of ideas and theories that "move from one culture to another as when alled Easter dess about transcendence were imported into Europe dering the early nineteenth ‘century, or when eatain European ideas about society were translated ‘nwo traditional Easter societies during the late nineteenth century Such ‘ovement int a new environment is never unimpeded, Ie necessry Involves processes of representation and instutionalization diferent from those atthe point of origin. This compleates any accouat of the ‘eanlation transference circulation, and comvrerce of theories ard ideas ‘howe is, however,» discernible and recurrent pattem to the ‘movement itself three or four stages comanon tothe way any theory oF idea ave. is theresa point of origin, or whet seems like one sof ni tl clrcumstances in whlch the idea came to Mth a entered discourse, Second, there isa distace transfered a passage through the presture of ‘various contexts as the idea moves fram an eer point to another Erne tnd place where it wil come into a new prominence. Third, there Isa set 7 conditions—cill them cantons of acceptance or as an inevitable part, ‘acceptance resistancer—vhich then contants the Wansplanted theoey «idee, making possible is introduction or toleration, however alin it night appear 1 be Fourth, the now fall (or party) accommodated (or inconporated) idea isto some extent transformed by new uses, ts new postion in anew time and place. It's obvious that any satisfactory full account ofthese lages ‘would bean enoemonstaske Bt though Ihave either the intention o the ‘opacity to undertakeit itseemed worthwhile to desebe the problem in ‘sketchy and general way so that might at length and in detail address particularly topical highly imited aspect oft. Ofcourse the discrepan- (Between the general problem and any particular analysis i itself ‘eserving of comment. To prefer local, detalied analysis of how one the- ‘ay travels from one situation to anor is aso to Betay some funda ‘ental uncertain about specifying or delimiting the field to which ay ‘ne theory aides might belong, Notice, fr example, that when profes- sdonalstadensofliterature now use words ke “theory” and "erticism”, kelsnot assumed that they must o should confine thelr interests 0 iter ty theory of literary cxtcsm. The distinction between one discipline snd another has bean blurred prciely because fils ike iterature and trary study are not longer considered tobe as allcompassing or as syn- ptc as, unl recently they once were. Although some polemical schal- sof iteratare can still nonetheless attack oer for not being teary ‘enough, of for not understanding (as who should not?) that teratwe, unlike other forms of writings essentally mimetic, esentilly moval, tend essentlly hamarisi, the resultant controversies are themselves ‘vidence of the fact that no consensus exits on how th outer limits ofthe ‘word "iteratare” ofthe word “eit” ae to be determined. Several decades ago, trary history andaystemati theory, of te kind plonzered by Northrop Frye, promised an orderly inhabitable and hospitable struc. ‘ture in oehich, for instance, it might be demonstrated thatthe mythos of summer could be transformed definably nto the mythosof autumn. "The ‘primal human actin Fry's system” writes Frank Lenticchi in Art ‘Nee Crtcem, quoting Fry's The Educate Inapnation, “and a mevdel for ‘alhuuman acs isan informative creative act which tansforms a woeld thats merely objective, set over against in which we fea lonely and 158 feightened and unwanted” into a home.“ But most teary scholars find ‘themselves nom ance again, out inthe cold Silay, the history ofidens and comparstive Iterative, two disciplines cee aseodlated withthe study of literature and literary eesm, do rot routinely authorize in their practitioners quite the same Goetheanserse ofa cancest ofall iter tures and ideas. nal dhese instances the speci stuston of locality ofa parti ‘lar intellectual task seems uneasily distant from, and only thetorcal’y| ‘sisted Dy, the legendary wholeness, coherence, a integrity of the gen- ral field to which one professionally belongs. There seem tobe to many Interruptions too many cistractons too many ivegularitis interfering ith the homogenous space supposedly holding scholars together. The division ofintellectal bor, which has meantincensng specialization, farther erodes any direct apprehension ane might have of whole field of literature and Iiterary study; conversely, theinvasion of terry discourse by the oir jargon of semiotics, post/structusalis, and Lacanian pay- ‘chomnaysis has distended the iterary critical universe almost beyend recognition. In short, there seems nothing inherently Iieray about the study of what have traditionally been consideved literary texts, no ier uiness that might prevent a contempocarylheeary cide from having scours to psychoanalysis, scilogy or linguiics. Convention, Nistor cal custom, and appeals the protocols af humanism and traditional Scholarship aze of course regulasly invoduced as evidence ofthe Seles ‘during integrity but more and more these seem tbe rhetorical strat fies ina debate about what erate and itexcy criticism ought lo be rather thax convincing definitions of what in fc they ae, Geofiey Hartmann has nicely dramatized the predicament by snalyzng the tensions and vacilatons governing contemporary erica ‘ctvity Today's crits, he says is radically eisionist “reed from a rneocasscal decorum that, over the space of thee centuries, created an enlightened but alo overaccommodated prose cricsm is undergoing ‘what he calls “an extraordinary language movement”? At ies th lane [age movement isso eccentric as to approach, ven challenge, erste Ioelf at others st obsesses the entice sho ate borne along it currents toward the eal ofa completely “pune” language. At stil others, heel ‘ediscovers that “writing isa labyrinth, 2 topological pusle and textual 19 cnt me a pe hia he omcboants eter maces ss ore mates Sec amaearm me Se ey eccep tinaa e a een se eee peng eee nae ace crtar cy ge iiuceevatumerenmartt at ae mnanincan roar a ae oa he or tens gtr cem ante sogtimeinines om ewer ee tment snc rserstatocnmaipcpintons meena Nemec recat circa Sastealesied eames Seeger Seatac ee i Pan gs ly Sg ce ee ntesattcoat cee eee esc enna ssh tain aod eae ———————— aa eee Sarat cere ea ean oe Fae ee connec ers Setgunenermanrs eta ene Seeoe nace cmacaeienrenra eat cae tnt ae ten ieee tec 160 analysis ofthe language of inettions versus criticism as. stu of ele ‘onships between language and nonlinguistc things. In the absence of an enclosing donmsin called literature, with ‘lear outer boundaries, there sno longer an authorized or oficial post tion for the Mtersry critic. But neither Is here some new sovereign ‘method, some new critical technology compelling allegiance and intel lect loyalty. Lnstead there i babel of arguments fr the limiesness ‘ofall interpretation; of ideologies that proclaim the eternal yet determie nate value of terature or “the humanii" foal systems that in assert ‘ng their capacity to perform essenallycaléconfraing tasks allow for no counterfactual evidence. You can cll such aaltustion plait if you ike oy ifyou have a taste fr the melodramatic you can cllit desperate For my par, prefer to see a6 an opportanity for nemaining skeptical and erica, succumbing nether to dogmatim not o sulky gloom, nce, the specie probe of wht happens to theory when i ‘moves from ane place to another proposes itself as an interesting topic of ‘investigation. For if feds ke literature or the history’ of ideas have no ‘otinsically enclosing lms, end if, conversely, no one methodology i Jimpostble upon what is an essentslly heterogeneous and open ares of sctivity—the wring and interpretation of texe—it is wise fo raise the questions of theory and of ertcam in ways sual tothe situation in ‘hich we fn ourselves At the outs this means an histsial approach Assure therefore that at. result of pecifc historical cieumstances athe ‘ry in pertaining ta than cnsimetances aries, What happene tt when in eliferent cumstances ad fr new reason sed agin and, instill more diferent cieumstances, gain? What can thi tell ws about the ‘ory tselt—its limits ts possiblities its inherent problems—and what ea ‘suggest tous abou! the relationship between theory and ericson the ‘ne hand, an society and culture onthe other? The pertinence of these questions willbe apparent ta time when theoretical activity seems both intense and eclectic, when the relationship between social reality and & dominant yet hermetic critical discourse seins had fo deeemine, and ‘when, fr al ofthese ressons and some ofthe ane Thave ust refered ti 'sfutileto prescribe theoreti programs for ontamporary rtm, Lakdcs Fistor and Cas Consciousness (1923) jst famos for ltsanalysis ofthe phonomenon of reification univers fate icing all 1 j k i i specs of fe in an era dominated by commodity fetishism. Since, a8 Lulees argues, capitalism is ehe mote articulated and quaniaively etl ofall economic systems, what it ieposes upen human life and Inbor under is role asthe consequence of ridicaly transforming every. thing human, lowing, proessual, organic, and connected ino discon nected and “elienated” objects items, feiss atoms. In such a situation, then, time sheds its qualitative, variable lowing nature; it feezes into an actly delimited, quaifable continuum fled with quantifiable “hing” (the sified, mechanically obecifed “performance” ofthe worker, whal- Iy separated fom his toll human personality) in shor it becomes space. [dhl envconment where time is arwformed into abstacteacly mat surable, physical space, an environment a once the case ard eet ofthe “scentfialy and mechanically fragmented and specialized production of the object of labor, the subjects of labor mus ikewise be rationally fag ‘mented. On the one hand, the objectifiation of their labor power into something opposed to thee total personality (a process already accom plished with the sle of tht labor power as a commodity) is now made nto the permanent ineluctabe ret oftheir day ite Here, too the per- ‘sonality can do no more than look on belplesy while ts own existences reduced to an plated particle and fed into an alien systom. On the ther hand, the mechanical disintegration ofthe process of production into is ‘components also destroys those bores that had bound individuals toa community in she days when production was fll “organic” In this cpt to machanioation malas af them salted abstract tome hoes ‘work no longer beings tem together directly and onganicaly it becomes ‘mediated to an lnceasig extent exchsivly bythe abstact Inws of the ‘mechanism which imprisons the? If hie picture ofthe publi world is bleak, itis matched by Luks’ description of what happens to intellect, the subject” ashe calls it After an astonishingly bilan account of the _antinomies of asia philosophy from Descartes to KanttoFchte, Hegel, land Marx, In which heshows he increacing reat ofthe subject nto pas sive, privatized contemplation, gradually more and more divorced frat ‘eaverwhelmingly Fagmented realities of modem ncartil if, Lukdes ‘hen depicts modern bourgeois thought aseing stn impase,taneixed ne paralyzed int terminal pasvity. Thescienee that it producesis based ‘on mer fact gathering the rational forms of understanding theretor ci 12 not cope with the fraionality of physical dems, and when efforts ste rmadeto compe "the facts” sult to “system, her ragmentatlon and ‘endlesly atomized herons ether deseo the system ox turn the mind intoa passive epster of discrete objects. ‘Thetis, however one form of experience that concretely repe- sens the essence of rication as well sits lmitaton: criss, Lapis {is the embodiment in economic tems of retention, then everything, including human beings, ought tobe quanifed and givena mathe value ‘This ofcourceis what Lukes means when he speaks of articulation under capitaliom, which he sometimes characteziws a ft were a gigantic ites ‘aed list, In principle nothing —no abject, person, place, or ime—is et out since everyting ean be calclated. But Usee are moments when "the qualitative existence of the ‘things’ that lead their lives beyond the purview of economics 65 misunderstood and neglected thingein-then= selves, as usovalue [Lukes here refers to such “rational” thine a en ‘iment pasion, chance suddenly becomes the decisive factor (suddenly, ‘hati, for refed, rational though). Or rather these Law fit netion tnd the reiied mind is unable to perceive a pattern inthis ‘hace’ At such moment, ther ind o “subject” hiss one opportunity to escape refcation: by thinking though what ti that causes realty to appa to ‘be only a collection of objets and economic données, And the very act of looking for proces behind what appears tobe eterrally given and objc- tied makes it posible foe the mind to know itl a subject and not as ets objec, thon to go beyond empiri elt nto a ptaive ean of possibility. When instead of inexplieable shortage of bred you can tag ine the human work and, subsequenty the human beings who produced thebrea ut are no longer doing so because there isa baker’ strike, you sae well on your way to knowing that cis is comprehensible Because process comprehensible; andi process is comprehensible, 0 twos some sense of the socal whole crested hy human labor. Coss, in sort, core ‘verte intocitcsm ofthe status quo: the baker are on strike fra reason, the css am be explained, the system dos not work nally Ue subject hasjust demonstrated its victory over oss objective forms Lkies putsall ofthis in terms of abject object elatanship and ‘Proper justi to his argument sequirs that be followed tothe pint "wherehe shows that recanciaten between subject and abject wile por 18. sible. Yet even headmitsthatsuch an evertunity every Farinto the future [Noverthslss he is certs thet no such fature is attainable without the ‘nansformaton of pasive, contemplative consciousness nto active, cif cal canseiousnas. In positing a world of human agency ostsidethe reach (of rificaton, the crea consciousness (the consciousness thats given ‘se tobe ris) becomes genainely aware of ts power “unceasing to ‘overthrow the objective forms that shape te lif of man." Consciousness _goea beyond empirical givens and comprehends, without actualy expere fencing, history, totaly, and society asa whole—precisely those unites thar refleation had both concealed and denied At hotom, clase con scousnes is thought thinking its way though fagrnentaton to wnt it is also thought aware ofits own subjectivity as something active, ener {etic and, ina profound sense, poetic (Here we shosld noe that several ‘years before History ant Cass Consciousness Lulces he argued that only in the realm of the aasthatic could the inltations of pure theory and of purvethics be overcome: by the frmer he meant seine theory Whose very objectivity symbolized its on reieation, is thralom to objects by the latter a Kantian subjectivity out of touch with eveything excep i ‘on seltiood. Only the Asstt rendered the meaning of experience a8 lived experience

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