34.705, Calls: ‘Negative solidarities’. The age of anger and hate speech in the Anglophone globalized public sphere.

Wed Mar 1 03:05:02 UTC 2023

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-705. Wed Mar 01 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.705, Calls:  ‘Negative solidarities’. The age of anger and hate speech in the Anglophone globalized public sphere.

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Date: 
From: giuseppina Scotto di Carlo [gscottodicarlo at unior.it]
Subject:  ‘Negative solidarities’. The age of anger and hate speech in the Anglophone globalized public sphere.

Full Title: ‘Negative solidarities’. The age of anger and hate speech
in the Anglophone globalized public sphere.

Date: 09-Nov-2023 - 10-Nov-2023
Location: Palazzo Du Mesnil, University of Naples L’Orientale.
(Italy), Italy
Contact Person: Rossella Ciocca
Meeting Email: rciocca at unior.it

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Call Deadline: 15-May-2023

Meeting Description:

When in 2017 Pankaj Mishra published Age of Anger: A History of the
Present, he devised an iconic title for a shared contemporary
condition. In articulating a widespread sense of general angst and
resentment, Mishra reconsidered notions of traditional political
theory to compare the “unprecedented political, economic and social
disorder that accompanied the rise of the industrial capitalist
economy” to the perplexing present of new holy wars and ideological
crusades which have left few democracies untouched. Rejuvenated forms
of nihilistic political violence and parochial chauvinism are arguably
infecting much vaster geopolitical realities and wider strata of the
population, thereby propelling local and global waves of loathing and
fear, shaping national and international forms of right-wing extremism
and/or religious fundamentalism and terrorism.

Although they travel transnationally, all over the world, forms of
‘negative solidarity’ (Arendt, Men in Dark Times, 1968) manifest
themselves in local adaptations. They prosper due to the weakening and
severe limits of the impoverished welfare state which is unable to
dispel a generalized perception of insecurity and disposability and
produces systemic mistrust in personal agency and a correlated thirst
for ‘problem-solving’ authoritarianism. Such insecurity and sense of
disposability makes some individuals more prone to inventing
scapegoats (e.g., intellectuals, elites, minorities such as Muslims,
women, Blacks, Jews, and even mainstream politicians) for their real
or imagined problems. Even the threat of global climate change tends
to generate blind forms of social anxiety, pessimism and
anti-scientific conspiracy theories instead of inspiring cooperative
action.

Moreover, neoliberal schemes of ruthless economic competition and free
enterprise rhetoric create exasperated expectancies of individual
self-distinction and economic realization fostering bitter feelings of
resentment, disappointment, and frustration. The universalization of
the culture of individualism has led to a frenetic pace of
ever-accelerating rugged competition, and a clamorous, vociferous
public sphere where social media accentuate social hierarchies thus
catalyzing a toxic mix of anomie and sectarianism.

In this scenario, negative affects and solidarities become key terms
to capture the fluid dynamics of communication and everyday human
behaviour. The vernacular and pervasive circulation of negative
affects such as anger, loathing and fear is perhaps most visible in
hate speech, fiercely expressed from
a protected and sometimes anonymous position in digitally networked
communication technologies.

Overt or covert hate speech towards specific social groups who are
viewed as minorities and/or vulnerable based on their religion,
ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation have seeped in everyday online
and offline conversation yet hate speech should also be analysed in
terms of a wider and new understanding of the politics and culture of
anger and hate. In this light, the interdisciplinary analysis of
contemporary literary and artistic expression, media and social media
communication may illuminate the logics by which new forms of
expression emerge, for example, in moments of crisis and conflict in
search for solidarity or joint action.

The present call for papers invites proposals focusing on the
socio-political and cultural significance of manifestations of
negative solidarities in the ‘Age of Anger’ and ‘Hate Speech’ and
their representations in literature, film, tv, the performing and
visual arts, as well as in news media and social media communication,
and historical and political discourse.

Call for Papers:

Please send an abstract (either in English or Italian) of about 300
words, including title and bibliography, and a short bio with
affiliation to dvitolo at unior.it and gscottodicarlo at unior.it (in cc to
rciocca at unior.it )

Deadline for abstracts 15 May 2023
Notification of acceptance 5 June 2023

We invite proposals on topics including, but not limited to:
Religion and anger
Gender and anger
Ethnicity, marginalization and anger
Communalism Vs Community
Isolation and competition
Entrepreneurialism, social greed
Geo-political fields of tension
Post-imperial melancholies, global fears
Hate speech, xenophobia and racism
Hate speech and disability
Hate speech and sexism
Visualizing terror, representing angst
Storytelling and trauma
Narration as antidote against poisonous socialization
Literary/artistic forms of activism

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