GIVMGNAME TO THE NAMELESS: HETERODOXNONPROPOSITTONAL UNDERSTANDING AND LIBERATORY PERSONALTRANSFORMAT~ON Alexis Shotwell Submiaed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Joint Women's Studies Programme Da1 housie University Mount Saint Vincent University Saint Mary's University Halifax, NS March, 2000 O Copyright by Alexis Shotwell National Library Bibliothèque nationale I*I of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellingtdn Ottawa ON KiA ON4 ûîtawaON K1AONQ Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic fonnats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantie1s may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Dedicated to liberation Table of Contents Abstract Chapter 1 : Introduction Chapter 2: Personal transformation and nonpropositional undentanding C hapter 3 : Personal transformation and identity Chapter 4: Narratives Chapter 5: Conclusion Abstract Systems of oppression have an impact on almost everything we do, whether oppression is experienced from the point of view of the oppressor or from the point of view of the oppressed. In l ight of the pervasiveness and the power of such systems, 1 am interested in the fact that people are able to act in ways that challenge and change them. That is, because 1 think that dominant ideologies are stmctured so as to rnake dominant groups appear to be logically or naturally dominant. 1 am particularly interested in liberatory consciousness as it arises in people who belong to oppressed goups. 1 argue that being able to act counter to dominant noms otten involves developing what 1 cal1 heterodox nonpropositional understanding and that such knowledge is necessary to individual transformations of consciousness. In this thesis 1 give an account of personal transformation in which 1 attribute importance to the role of nonpropositional anti-oppressive understandings of oneself and one's world. One of my main projects here is to draw on Susan Babbitt's theoretical model of nonpropositional knowledge and transformation in a reading of the personal narratives of Audre Lorde and Dorothy Allison. First. 1 add theoretical resources to Babbitt's account of the importance of rionpropositional knowledge to liberatory transformation through readings of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Sandra Bartky, Diana Tietjens Meyers, and Ronald de Sousa. Second. I address her conception of selfhood. or what is transfomed in liberatory transformation. using the work of Sandra Harding, and Maria Lugones. I found these theorists' contribution to Babbitt's theory necessary for me to adequately look at Audre Lorde's and Dorothy Allison's persona1 narratives. Acknowledgments 1 would like to thank my thesis supervisor. Sue Campbell, and my cornmittee member. Ann Manicorn. Both have been kind. precise. and ruthless. and I have appreciated their intelligence and support tremendously throughout this process. 1 can't imagine better mentors. 1 was fortunate to have Susan Shenvin as a extemai examiner. Thanks to the faculty and staffof the Joint Women's Studies Graduate Programme. who have created a unique opportunity to study feminist theory. and to Dalhousie's Faculty of Graduate Studies for kind support of rny work during this degree. I am always grateful to rny family. who are loving and delightful beyond reason. My thanks particuiarly to Caleb Toombs. for being thoroughly generous. vii Chapter One Introduction In 1 772, Phillis Wheatley defended her personhood to a group of Boston's most distinguished citizens. She was a black woman, a slave, had written a book of poems and, with the help of her owner, intended to publish them. The group of respectable Bostonians was assembled to test whether she was capable of writing poetry. This test was part of a debate begun in the sixteenth century as to whether the "Afncan variety" of humanity bore any relation to the "European variety"; if so, perhaps they were not fated to be slaves.' When Phillis Wheatley defended her ability to write poetry, she was asserting an ability and an identity radically different than that her world assigned her. When 1 entered my second year of university 1 identified myself as a non- feminist. That year 1 took a course in feminist philosophy. At the end of the term 1 identified myself as a feminist. Phillis Wheatley and 1 have very little in common, and 1 am not claiming any deep connection in our stories. 1 think they do have something in common, though: a change in self-articulation that (to varying degrees) functions in opposition to a prevailing norm. I am interested in the background underlying such changes. In this thesis 1 give an account of persona1 transformation in which 1 amibute importance to the role of nonpropositional anti-oppressive understandings 1 of oneself and one's world. This project is linked to a more general epistemic one, as it addresses a lack in much current epistemology - the absence of an account of that which underlies propositional knowledge. It is based on Susan Babbitt's mode1 of nonpropositional knowledge and transformation. Her argument for the role of nonpropositional knowledge in persona1 liberatory transformation lays out a new and rich theoretical framework for thinking about transfonnation. One of the main projects of this thesis is to draw on Babbitt's theoretical mode1 in a reading of two women's persona1 narratives. 1 intend to contribute to her framework, by drawing on the resources of several other theorists; their work enriches and deepens Babbitt's, in two ways. First, 1 add theoretical resources to Babbitt 's account of the importance of nonpropositional knowledge to liberatory transformation by drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Diana Tietjens Meyen, and Ronald de Sousa. Second, 1 address her conception of selfhood, or what is tnnsformed in liberatory transformation, using the work of Sandra Harding and Mana Lugones. 1 found these theorists' contributions to Babbitt's theory necessary for me to adequately look at Audre Lorde's and Dorothy Allison's persona1 narratives. Susan Babbitt's theory was the most useful tool 1 found in thinking about issues both Lorde and Allison raise, but it required fleshing out in these two areas in order to fùlly address their work. I begin this chapter with a bief definition of the ternis 1 use throughout this thesis. I then set out the epistemological framework of this work by discussing the propositional bias of much epistemology, and by introducing the idea of nonpropositional understandings. In Chapter Two, I argue that the nonpropositional is important to knowledge. 1 then refine and deepen a theory of nonpropositional understanding, beginning with Susan Babbitt's account of transformation and nonpropositional knowledge. 1 continue with an analysis of Ludwig Wittgenstein's discussion of certainty, arguing that his account gives a useful picture of the role of nonpropositional understanding in the formation of propositional certainty. Ronald de Sousa's argument that the emotions are important determinants of salience is helpful to understanding how nonpropositionai understanding can change a person's frame of reference, and contribute to political action. Diana Tiejens Meyers gives a useful discussion of heterodox moral perception and 1 tum to her account to brhg out the sense in which nonpropositional knowledge can be heterodox. In Chapter Three, Iextend Babbit's arguments about persona1 transformations wi th a look at Sandra Harding and Maria Lugones. Both theorists argue that liberatory knowing and acting are a result of a nonunitary self. Neither of them is primarily interested in transformation, and they do not use the teminology of transformation. Their views, however, rely on and present a strong case for positive transformation, and for the sort of identity necessary to liberatory transformation. Sandra Harding links epistemic shifts with identity, arguing that the knowledge generated fiom identities that have been traditionally despised as knowledge generators holds liberatory potential. She argues that the liberatory self is bifurcated, that it hnctions as a nonunitary entity, and that this quality is an important source of nonoppressive knowledge. Harding's view of consciousness as bifurcated seems to me to highlight the importance of an account of the self as multiple. Such an account is helpful io thinking about the liberatory transformation of oppressed peoples; it will prove especially useful in my consideration of Audre Lorde's personal narratives and poetry. Maria Lugones offen a very convincing argument about transformation in the context of systernic oppression, and 1 examine her argument for the account s he offers of liberatory consciousness. 1 find her understanding of lirnenality very usehl in thinking about transformation generally, and Susan Babbitt's account of transformation particularly. Lugones' discussion of acting out of a position of limenality in such a way that one changes the logic of one's position offers a different and, 1 argue, necessary account of how oppressed people are able to act against oppression. It is, like Harding's argument, explicitly based in the premise that multiple identities are the source of liberatory knowledge and any potential for liberatory action. Having attempted, in chapters Two and Three, to give a detailed account of the mechanisms of liberatory nonpropositional shifts in consciousness, I tum to Audre Lorde's and Dorothy Allison's theory, personal narratives, and creative work.