Title

Shame And Silence

Abstract

Samantha Vice’s proposal on how to live in ‘this strange place’ of contemporary South Africa, includes an appeal to the concepts of shame and silence. In this paper, I use Emmanuel Levinas and Giorgio Agamben to move the discussion of shame from a moral to an existential question. The issue is not about how one should feel, but about the kind of self that whiteness in South Africa makes possible today. Shame desubjectifies. Vice’s recommendation of silence is then taken as witnessing/listening, which I argue grounds the possibility of a recovery of the self. © 2011 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Publication Title

South African Journal of Philosophy

Volume

30

Issue

4

Number of Pages

462-471

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.4314/sajpem.v30i4.72107

Socpus ID

84875736856 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84875736856

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