Dissenting Non-Dissenting: 'Resistance through Culture'

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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10

Foreign Countries; Social Systems; Political Attitudes; Dissent; Cultural Maintenance; Educational Philosophy; Freedom; Authoritarianism; Individualism; Gifted; Gender Bias; Females; Authors; Debate; Awards; Immigrants; Language Attitudes; Freedom of Speech; Self Concept; Socialization; Interpersonal Relationship; Metacognition; Censorship; Gender Differences

10.1080/00131857.2021.1933943

0013-1857
1469-5812

Putting into question its central presupposition of 'inner freedom', this paper deconstructs the 'resistance through culture' of the Paltinis School of dissident thinkers in Romania under communism in the 1970s and 80s. The philosopher Constantin Noica, and his follower Gabriel Liiceanu, argue that resistance to authoritarian repression and dictatorial regimes is best achieved by preserving culture by schooling selected individuals in that culture rather than through direct political action or publicly speaking out. Adducing precisely which cultural values underpin the arguments of these thinkers -- values such as purity, exceptionalism, individualism and genius -- I show that the culture propounded by them is essentially patriarchal and, further, that this culture is complicit with the very tyranny it seeks to resist: philosophically, ideologically and in practice. This is evidenced by the exclusion of women from the culture espoused. Additionally, by focussing on a fairly recent debate between Liiceanu and Nobel prize-winning author Herta Müller, herself an exile from communist Romania, I delineate two opposing philosophies of language which might best be described as "birth of the word is in the head" versus "birth of the word is on the page", effectively re-staging a problem going back to early defences of liberty, for example in Spinoza and Mill, the relationship between freedom of thought and freedom of expression. Only by understanding selves as linguistic bodies whose language is socialised and shared through affective relations to others and to oneself do we arm ourselves with the resources to resist censorship, repression and tyranny.

As Provided

2023

EJ1386685