Telling the Stories of Others: Applying an Ameliorated Concept of 'Culture' to the Subject Appropriation Debate
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Philosophy
Abstract
AHRC (WRoCAH) : Nadia Mehdi : AH/L503848/1
My research project will examine subject appropriation. I will argue that subject appropriation - the representation of a culture by an artist from another culture - is of moral concern when dominantly situated artists (men, white people, and so on) misrepresent the experiences and subjectivities of the oppressed given that misrepresentations further perpetuate marginalization.
I will first develop an account of what misrepresentations are comprised of, something that has yet to be done in the debate regarding subject appropriations. I must then show, against popular philosophical belief, that it is indeed possible to misrepresent what is ultimately a fictional experience.
Next, I must establish that it is possible for audiences learn from fiction. I will explore the phenomenological dimensions of fictions, those dimensions related to the experience of consuming fictions, to demonstrate that fiction can impart a knowledge-of-what-it-is-like to live with a marginalized identity.
I will then determine why it is a problem for audiences to learn falsehoods about the oppressed, canvassing work in social epistemology to articulate the ways in which misrepresentations uphold oppression at both the material and ideological level.
My research project will examine subject appropriation. I will argue that subject appropriation - the representation of a culture by an artist from another culture - is of moral concern when dominantly situated artists (men, white people, and so on) misrepresent the experiences and subjectivities of the oppressed given that misrepresentations further perpetuate marginalization.
I will first develop an account of what misrepresentations are comprised of, something that has yet to be done in the debate regarding subject appropriations. I must then show, against popular philosophical belief, that it is indeed possible to misrepresent what is ultimately a fictional experience.
Next, I must establish that it is possible for audiences learn from fiction. I will explore the phenomenological dimensions of fictions, those dimensions related to the experience of consuming fictions, to demonstrate that fiction can impart a knowledge-of-what-it-is-like to live with a marginalized identity.
I will then determine why it is a problem for audiences to learn falsehoods about the oppressed, canvassing work in social epistemology to articulate the ways in which misrepresentations uphold oppression at both the material and ideological level.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Nadia Mehdi (Principal Investigator) |