The politics of being insulted
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Zohar Kampf
Abstract
Scholars of politeness admit that being insulted may be the result of the hearer’s assumptions about the other’s behavior and may not necessarily relate to the actual words or intentions of the speaker. Thus, it is surprising to find only a few accounts of how people are doing “being insulted” or of how, in public discourse, responses to insults are strategically employed for various ends. In this chapter, I analyze the meta-pragmatics of “hurt feelings” in order to understand how speakers do things with emotions and the role of hurt feelings in political democratic discourse. By examining instances in which public figures have stated their feelings of insult in Israeli public discourse (1997–2012), I show both how hurt feelings are strategically employed to protest against politically unacceptable acts, and how public actors sometimes explicitly refuse to be insulted, shifting the meaning of what is perceived as an insult by side-participants into a compliment. I conclude by discussing the consequences of manifesting hurt feelings in political discourse.
Abstract
Scholars of politeness admit that being insulted may be the result of the hearer’s assumptions about the other’s behavior and may not necessarily relate to the actual words or intentions of the speaker. Thus, it is surprising to find only a few accounts of how people are doing “being insulted” or of how, in public discourse, responses to insults are strategically employed for various ends. In this chapter, I analyze the meta-pragmatics of “hurt feelings” in order to understand how speakers do things with emotions and the role of hurt feelings in political democratic discourse. By examining instances in which public figures have stated their feelings of insult in Israeli public discourse (1997–2012), I show both how hurt feelings are strategically employed to protest against politically unacceptable acts, and how public actors sometimes explicitly refuse to be insulted, shifting the meaning of what is perceived as an insult by side-participants into a compliment. I conclude by discussing the consequences of manifesting hurt feelings in political discourse.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
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Introduction
- Discourses of hate and radicalism in action 1
- Saying the unsayable 13
- Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media 41
- Mobilizing against the Other 57
- The hate that dare not speak its name? 99
- The paranoid style in politics 129
- The politics of being insulted 149
- Representing “terrorism” 171
- “Threatening other” or “role-model brother”? 193
- Political crisis and the rise of the far right in Greece 215
- Discursive violence and responsibility 243
- About the contributors 271
- Index 275
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Discourses of hate and radicalism in action 1
- Saying the unsayable 13
- Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media 41
- Mobilizing against the Other 57
- The hate that dare not speak its name? 99
- The paranoid style in politics 129
- The politics of being insulted 149
- Representing “terrorism” 171
- “Threatening other” or “role-model brother”? 193
- Political crisis and the rise of the far right in Greece 215
- Discursive violence and responsibility 243
- About the contributors 271
- Index 275
