In the colloquium on Thursday …

In the colloquium on Thursday 29th, we'll discuss one of the questions which was given for the exam last year:

1. In her article entitled “Thick Resistance”, Sherry Ortner makes the statement that “There is life beyond even the most totalizing discourse…” What does she mean to communicate with this statement? Explain the theory of “totalizing discourse” she refers to. What theory does she weigh it against in developing her idea of “thick resistance.” Give two examples of discourses which discipline social agency (from a review of literature or from your own experience). Give examples which show that “there is life beyond even the most totalizing discourse.”

Ortner, Sherry. 1999. ’Thick Resistance: Death and the Cultural Construction of Agency in Himalaya mountaineering’, in S. B. Ortner (ed) The Fate of ’Culture’: Geertz and Beyond. Berkeley: University of California Press.