Toward a Rhetoric of Insult

Conley, Thomas

doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226114798.001.0001

Cited by 27 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…3 For a detailed list of insult literature in the Western contexts, see Conley 2010;Schnakenberg 2004. For other works see Burkey 1987;Labov 1972.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theoretical focus is on the production of social control and social cohesion within bounded societies, amply elucidated by classic anthropological works by Edmund Leach offering a three layered categorization of abuse (1964), Evans-Pritchard's description of the Zande concept of sanza (oblique speech forms which are usually abusive), or Judith Irvine's (1993) analysis of insult poetry (xaxaar) among the Wolof villagers in Western Sudan. For scholars of linguistics, the textual features of insult and abuse in literary works and social events are the key concerns, although many studies are restricted by formalism lacking a theory of social power or by rational critical assumptions around abuses as intentional and tactical moves to cause insult (Conley, 2010). For the cultural studies tradition inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin, abuse is an important element of 'unofficial language' and 'heteroglossia', which subvert the dominant 'verbal-ideological life of the nation and the epoch' through play, ridicule and seeming obscenity (Bakhtin, 1980: 273).…”

Section: Abuse: Between Control and Heteroglossiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaali cultures: The politics of abusive exchange on social media

Udupa¹

2018

Preprint

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On the rapidly expanding social media in India, online users are witness to a routine exchange of abusive terms and accusations with the choicest swearwords hurled even for the seemingly non-inflammatory political debates. This paper draws upon anthropology of insult to uncover the distinctness, if at all, of online abuse as a means for political participation as well as for the encumbering it provokes and relations of domination it reproduces as a result. In so doing, the paper critiques the conception of ludic as anti-hegemonic in the Bakhtian tradition, and develops an emic term ‘gaali’ to signal the blurred boundaries between comedy, insult, shame and abuse emerging on online media which also incite gendered forms of intimidation. Gaali, it argues, is best conceptualized through the metaphor of ‘sound’ as distinct from what recent new media studies theorize as ‘voice’.

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“…3 For a detailed list of insult literature in the Western contexts, see Conley 2010;Schnakenberg 2004. For other works see Burkey 1987;Labov 1972.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Abuse: Between Control and Heteroglossiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaali cultures: The politics of abusive exchange on social media

Udupa¹

2018

Preprint

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“…Matsuda u.a. 1993;Neu 2008;Moïse et al 2008;Conley 2010;Gauger 2012) ebenso wie geschichtswissenschaftliche Analysen (Beard 2014;Lobenstein-Reichmann 2013;Eming/Jarzebowski 2008;Czech 2010;Speitkamp 2010). Aus neuerer Zeit lassen sich Debattenbeiträge identifizieren, deren Anspruch und Bedeutung weit über die jeweils eigene Disziplin hinausweisen, etwa sozialpsychologische Reflexionen zur sprachlichen Diskriminierung (Graumann 1998) oder besonders die sprachphilosophischen Beiträge zu hate speech und zu verletzenden Worten (Butler 2006;Herrmann/ Krämer/Kuch 2007).…”

Section: Eine Hinführungunclassified

Invektivität - Perspektiven eines neuen Forschungsprogramms in den Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften

Ellerbrock

Koch

Müller-Mall

et al. 2018

Kulturwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift

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This article aims to introduce the concept of „Invecticity“ as a new perspective for social and cultural studies. It understands phenomena of insult and debasement, of humiliation and exposure as - cross-cultural and epoch-spanning - basic operations of societal communication. Due to their disruptive, stabilising or dynamising effects on social order, invective communication have the potential to unite and shape societies. This article subsumes such phenomena under the term Invectivity. The term includes all aspects of communication (either verbal or non-verbal, oral or written, gestural or graphic) that are used to degrade, to hurt or to marginalize others. Manifestations and functions of the Invective are not systemised under strict patterns but medially, politically, socially and aesthetically contextualized depending on the diverse historical contexts and complex constellations they occur in. Thus, they can only be properly understood as performative events which develop through the interaction of ascription, response and follow-up communication as well as by means of the social, discursive and media conditions in which they arise.

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“…Thomas Conley describes an insult as ‘an expression of a severely negative opinion of a person or group in order to subvert their positive self-regard and esteem; and often we consider insults to be examples of verbal abuse’ (2010: 2–3). This is an accurate description of many insults, but, as with Aristotle's, it is too narrow.…”

Section: Intended or Unintendedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conley takes this in an interesting direction: ‘The key word here is, of course, ‘intent’; for no term, obscene or not, can be considered an insult unless it is intended to be an insult. (This is not to deny that some people are ‘insulted’ when they shouldn't be; but that is a different matter)’ (2010: 27). I agree that people sometimes take offense—we feel insulted—when no insult was given.…”

Section: Causing Offense or Notmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Insults

Daly¹

2018

J. of the Am. Philos. Assoc.

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Some bemoan the incivility of our times, while others complain that people have grown too quick to take offense. There is widespread disagreement about what counts as an insult and when it is appropriate to feel insulted. Here I propose a definition and a preliminary taxonomy of insults. Namely, I define insults as expressions of a lack of due regard. And I categorize insults by whether they are intended or unintended, acts or omissions, and whether they cause offense or not. Unintended insults are of particular concern since greater understanding may help us to avoid them. And insults by omission warrant special consideration because they suggest an interesting extension of Grice's theory of conversational implicature.

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Toward a Rhetoric of Insult

Cited by 27 publications

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Gaali cultures: The politics of abusive exchange on social media

Gaali cultures: The politics of abusive exchange on social media

Invektivität - Perspektiven eines neuen Forschungsprogramms in den Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften

On Insults

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