Atenea Atenea • Diciembre 2007 Volumen XXVII Número 2 / December Volume Number Centro de Publicaciones Académicas UPR-RUM Facultad de Artes y Ciencias Impresos RUM revista bilingüe de las humanidades y las ciencias sociales/ a bilingual journal of the humanities and social sciences Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez, 2002 Diseño y arte portada: ISSN: 0885-6079 José M. Irizarry, Nandita Batra © ATENEA REVISTA BILINGÜE DE LA FACULTAD DE ARTES Y CIENCIAS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO, RECINTO DE MAYAGÜEZ VOLUMEN XXVII • NÚMERO 2 DICIEMBRE 2007 Centro de Publicaciones Académicas UPR-RUM Facultad de Artes y Ciencias ATENEA Revista de la Facultad de Artes y Ciencias de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Mayagüez Junta Administrativa: Rector: JORGE VÉLEZ AROCHO Decano: MOISÉS ORENGO AVILÉS Directora de Publicaciones: LISSETTE ROLÓN COLLAZO Junta Editorial: Editora: NANDITA BATRA Consejo Consultivo Editorial LUIS AVILÉS, Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez BEN BENNANI, Facultad de Artes y Ciencias, Emirates University ANDERSON BROWN, Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez RIMA BRUSI, Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez LILIA DAPAZ, Departamento de Estudios Hispánicos, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (Jubilada) GAURAV DESAI, Departamento de Inglés, Tulane University LIBE GARCÍA ZARRANZ, Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Universidad de Zaragoza JACQUELINE GIRÓN, Departamento de Estudios Hispánicos, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez ERICH FREIBERGER, División de las Humanidades, Jacksonville University FRANCISCO GARCÍA-MORENO BARCO, Departamento de Estudios Hispánicos, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez ANA KOTHE, Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez MARY LEONARD, Departamento de Inglés, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez CORA MONROE, Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez CHRISTOPHER POWERS, Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez HUGO RÍOS, Departamento de Literatura Comparada, Rutgers University DAVIDE STIMILLI, Departamento de Literatura Comparada, Universidad de Colorado-Boulder MANUEL VALDES-PIZZINI, Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Ayudante Editorial Estudiantil: SHARON MÉNDEZ RODRÍGUEZ LA JUNTA EDITORA DE LA REVISTA ATENEA publica artículos relacionados con las humanidades y las ciencias sociales escritos en español o en inglés y algunos cuentos y poemas. Los artículos deben regirse por las normas estipuladas en la última edición del manual del Modern Language Association of America (MLA). Favor de enviar tres copias a la Editora, Revista Atenea, PO Box 9265, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681. La Junta Editora no se hace responsable de las opiniones emitidas por los colaboradores y se reserva el derecho de publicación. Derechos de propiedad literaria reservados. © 1999 Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez ISSN 0885-6079 URL: http://www.uprm.edu/atenea Tipografía: HRP Studio Diseño y arte portada: José Irizarry y Nandita Batra © El diseño de la portada viene de un tetradracma de plata ateniense del siglo V a.C. Presenta a Atenea en el anverso y su atributo, la lechuza, en el reverso. Cortesía del Foro de Monedas Antiguas. Ilustrador: José Irizarry THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF REVISTA ATENEA publishes articles on the humanitites and social sciences written in English or Spanish, as well as some poetry and fiction. Articles should conform to the norms stipulated by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) and be sent in triplicate to the Editor, Revista Atenea, PO Box 9265, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681. The Editorial Board of Atenea is not responsible for the views expressed by the contributing authors and reserves the right to publication. Right to Literary Property Reserved. © 1999 University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez ISSN 0885-6079 URL: http://www.uprm.edu/atenea Typography: HRP Studio Cover designed by José Irizarry and Nandita Batra © The cover design is based on an Athenian silver tetradrachm from the 5th century B.C., depicting Athena on the obverse and her owl on the reverse. Courtesy of the Ancient Coin Forum. Illustration: José Irizarry ÍNDICE / TABLE OF CONTENTS ENSAYOS / ESSAYS KANCHANA MAHADEVAN - Wounding Words and Speech Acts: Between Habermas and Butler .................................. 9 MICHAEL MIKULAK - The Nature of Solidarity and Nature’s Solidarity: Bioregionalism, Situated Knowledge, and Unity in Diversity within Biocultural Systems ...... 33 LIBE GARCÍA ZARRANZ - Diswomen Strike Back? The Evolution of Disney’s femmes in the 1990s ......... 55 SARA SCOTT ARMENGOT - The Return of Patient Zero: The Male Body and Narratives of National Contagion ...... 67 JESSICA WEBB - Corrupting Boyhood in Didactic Children’s Literature: Marryat, Ballantyne and Kingsley ............................................................... 81 PATRICIA CATOIRA - El barroco y la patria criolla en Espejo de paciencia ............................................................... 95 STÉPHANE PILLET - When Strategic Mistakes Save the Play Application of Game Theory in Sartre’s Dirty Hands ................................................................. 109 JOCELYN A. GÉLIGA VARGAS - El incierto proyecto del “cine nacional” puertorriqueño ante el colonialismo y la globalización .............................................................. 121 MARK MASCIA - Redefining Civilization: Historical Polarities and Mythologizing in Los conquistadores of Pablo Neruda’s Canto general ............................................. 137 POESÍA / POETRY GILES GOODLAND - Blister; Ghost; Myth of the Jews; Nothing; Representation; The Poet ............................ 161 ENSAYOS / ESSAYS 9 WOUNDING WORDS AND SPEECH ACTS: BETWEEN HABERMAS AND BUTLER Kanchana Mahadevan “…the issuing of the utterance is the performing of the action—it is not normally thought of as just saying something” (Austin 6). eminist philosophy treats embodiment as a “situation” lived through the symbolic dimension of language, as well as the ma- Fteriality of socio-economic institutions and practices. Language reflects women’s materiality paradoxically through masculine generic terms that exclude and includes them secondarily through wounding names such as ‘witch.’ Injurious names locate bodies in abjection; yet, since the body is a situation the latter is also a sign of hope. Embodi- ment is a contingent phenomenon linked to contingent practices such as language, in an equally contingent patriarchal society. Consequent- ly, it opens prospects for dislocating symbolic and material injury. According to J.L. Austin’s speech act theory, language is a form of action. As Judith Butler observes, speech acts are more closely connected with the body than written marks. Though the latter do re- quire the body, there is an ambiguity about to whom writing belongs, unlike speech. The social life of the body is produced through lin- guistic interpellation, which recognizes and abjects the body. Jürgen Habermas’s and Butler’s diverse appropriations of Austin reveal that the performative aspect of injurious language is either illocutionary or perlocutionary. Habermas evokes Austin’s illocutionary speech acts to develop language as communicative action, whereas Butler proposes a performative account that heeds the semantic excess in perlocutionary speech. Habermas’s critique of subject-centered language resonates with the feminist critique of patriarchal speech. However, Butler alleges that Habermas’s emphasis on argumentation and agreement neglects gender. This article engages with Habermas/Butler debate on language with reference to the injurious term ‘witch.’ Since witch-hunting still Vol. XXVII Núm. 2 • diciembre 2007 ATENEA 10 WOUNDING WORDS AND SPEECH ACTS... prevails in highly exploited tribal communities in India, Mahasweta Devi’s short story ‘Bayen’ frames the article, which is divided into three parts. The first explores the linguistic turn in feminist philoso- phy. The second section examines Habermas’s views on language given feminist concerns of linguistic injury and Butler’s critique. In its final part, the article explores the possibility of a counter-patriarchal linguistic project through Habermas’s post-conventional identity. I Gendered Turn to Language:Masculine Thinker, Feminine Embodiment If femininity is acquired rather than given, it shapes both mind and body through historical practices.1 Further, the body is not a foundation for the cultural embodiment of gender.2 When philosophy typically proclaims it as the prison of the soul, the body is already marked by language that deleteriously equates women with bodies. In a patriarchal society, women’s relation to their bodies is mediated by names that acquire authority by drawing upon prior practices (Butler, Bodies 226-30). Thus, ‘girl,’ ‘woman,’ ‘mother’ or ‘witch’ initiate materialization of feminine practices, with a long complex history of regulation governed by a hierarchical opposition between the thinker and ‘his’ body (232-233).3 Words like ‘mother’ equate her with the reproduction of life, whereas those like ‘witch’ make her life-threatening. Indeed, the sign ‘witch’ projects the woman as an unruly force—a body that does not matter, an abject that is outside the order of norms. “The mother has become a devouring monster …” (Irigaray, Reader 40). As Irigaray points out, the imagery of myths and legends