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Chapter 4. The circulation of violence in discourse

  • Daniel N. Silva
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Language and Violence
This chapter is in the book Language and Violence

Abstract

This paper examines two hypotheses concerning the relationship between language and violence. (1) Language does not merely represent violence, but enacts its own type of violence. (2) The use of violent language participates in the demarcation of political and subjective viability in the public sphere. I argue that these hypotheses are true to the extent that discourse circulates. I elaborate on two models of discourse circulation: iterability, a concept that Jacques Derrida proposed and that Judith Butler borrows in her understanding of the performativity of hate speech, and communicability, an anthropological concept devised by Charles Briggs to envision the complex infectious character of modern discourses. This paper also looks at the communicability of violent discourse in Brazilian contemporary political life.

Abstract

This paper examines two hypotheses concerning the relationship between language and violence. (1) Language does not merely represent violence, but enacts its own type of violence. (2) The use of violent language participates in the demarcation of political and subjective viability in the public sphere. I argue that these hypotheses are true to the extent that discourse circulates. I elaborate on two models of discourse circulation: iterability, a concept that Jacques Derrida proposed and that Judith Butler borrows in her understanding of the performativity of hate speech, and communicability, an anthropological concept devised by Charles Briggs to envision the complex infectious character of modern discourses. This paper also looks at the communicability of violent discourse in Brazilian contemporary political life.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Investigating violence in language 1
  4. Part I. The language of violence
  5. Chapter 1. The invention of violence 33
  6. Chapter 2. Voice and silence in the suburbs of São Paulo 57
  7. Chapter 3. From the side of the road to the borders of the page 79
  8. Part II. The violence of language
  9. Chapter 4. The circulation of violence in discourse 107
  10. Chapter 5. Racist speech as a linguistic discriminatory practice in Brazil 125
  11. Chapter 6. Free speech, hate speech, and hate beards 141
  12. Part III. The intersections of violence, bodies and languages
  13. Chapter 7. On languages, bodies and epistemic violence 171
  14. Chapter 8. Queering violence and narrative 189
  15. Chapter 9. Discursive constructions of deviance in the narratives of a prison inmate 227
  16. Index 249
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.279.05sil

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Investigating violence in language 1
  4. Part I. The language of violence
  5. Chapter 1. The invention of violence 33
  6. Chapter 2. Voice and silence in the suburbs of São Paulo 57
  7. Chapter 3. From the side of the road to the borders of the page 79
  8. Part II. The violence of language
  9. Chapter 4. The circulation of violence in discourse 107
  10. Chapter 5. Racist speech as a linguistic discriminatory practice in Brazil 125
  11. Chapter 6. Free speech, hate speech, and hate beards 141
  12. Part III. The intersections of violence, bodies and languages
  13. Chapter 7. On languages, bodies and epistemic violence 171
  14. Chapter 8. Queering violence and narrative 189
  15. Chapter 9. Discursive constructions of deviance in the narratives of a prison inmate 227
  16. Index 249
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