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hermeneutical death

📖 Definitions

"phenomena that radically constrain one’s hermeneutical capacities and agency such as the following: the loss (or radical curtailment) of one’s voice, of one’s interpretative capacities, or of one’s status as a participant in meaning-making and meaning-sharing practices" (Medina, 2017, p. 41); "occurring when subjects are not treated as intelligible communicators and are prevented from participating in meaning-making and meaning-sharing practices" (Medina, 2018, p. 255).

💡 Examples

  • "Gloria Anzaldúa described the predicament of hermeneutical death in forceful and dramatic ways when she writes about Anglo White privilege as killing her voice and her capacity to be heard and understood in her own terms, as using (what she called) ‘linguistic terrorism’ to annihilate her self: “El Anglo con cara de inocente nos arranco la lengua. Wild tongues cannot be tamed, they can only be cut out” (1987: 76). “Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self ” (1987: 80)" (Anzaldúa, Gloria (1987), Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. New York: Aunt Lute Books, as cited by (Medina, 2017, p. 41).

🔗 Relations

📚 References

  • Medina, José. 2017. "Varieties of Hermeneutical Injustice" in Kidd, I. J., Medina, J., Pohlhaus, G., & Jr (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice. Routledge: 41-52 https: doi.org/10.4324/9781315212043