10.30495/jntell.2023.1990314.1071

Perception and Misperception of Violence:A Žižekian Study of Toni Morrison's TheBluest Eye and Beloved

PDF
  • Afshin Mosallanejad1,
  • Hassan Shahabi*2,
  • Sharam Reesi Sistani3,
  1. PhD Candidate of Department of English Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
  2. Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran
  3. Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran

Revised: 2023-07-02

Accepted: 2023-07-11

Published in Issue 2023-12-01

Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of New Trends in English Language Learning (JNTELL)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Mosallanejad, A., Shahabi, H., & Reesi Sistani, S. (2023). Perception and Misperception of Violence:A Žižekian Study of Toni Morrison’s TheBluest Eye and Beloved. Journal of New Trends in English Language Learning (JNTELL), 2(4), 59-70. https://doi.org/10.30495/jntell.2023.1990314.1071
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

PDF views: 262

Abstract

Violence as an unavoidable part of human beings' experience is so widespread within individuals' contacts that in most cases is
ignored or taken for granted. However, violence is subject to various misperceptions that make the study of it challenging.
Theoretically, this paper adopts the three forms of violence suggested by Slavoj Žižek: subjective, objective and systemic violence
in order to explore how Žižek proves the ways by which, violence is perceived and misperceived. In doing so, this paper applies
political discourse analysis, Black gender feminism, and psychoanalytic methods to be the approaches of this study. By applying
Žižek's theories of violence on Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved as the corpus of the study the current paper explores
violence and the ways it is misrepresented. The objective of this paper is to explore the strategies which lead to misperception of
violence. The conclusion drawn from this paper shows that Žižekian systemic violence that generates other forms of violence
should remain hidden as dark matter of physics. Some pseudo-activities, ideologies or pseudo-ideologies can be at work in their
manifest and latent forms when something that is so obviously omnipresent remains invisible or is misperceived.

Keywords

  • Misperception of violence,
  • Pseudo-activities,
  • Pseudo-ideology,
  • Toni Morrison,
  • Slavoj Žižek
PDF

References

  1. Arroyo, Anthony. (2009). YouTube – Žižek on Children of Men, Vol. (2) 25 Nov.
  2. Boskin, Joseph. (1986). Sambo: The Rise and Demise of an American Jester. New York: Oxford
  3. University Press.
  4. Brembeck, W. L., & Howell, W. S. (1976). Persuasion: A Means of Social Influence. Prentice Hall.
  5. Bubandt, Nils. (2014). The Empty Seashell: Witchcraft and Doubt on an Indonesian Island. Cornell
  6. University Press.
  7. Clarkson, Thomas. (1788). An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly
  8. the African. London: Joseph Crukshank.
  9. De Wet, C.L. (2016). "The punishment of slaves in Early Christianity: The views of some selected
  10. Church Fathers." Actatheol. Vol. 36 suppl. 23 Bloemfontein.
  11. Dekoven, Marianne. (2004). Utopia Limited: The Sixties and the Emergence of the Postmodern. Durham:
  12. Duke University Press.
  13. Perception and Misperception of Violence: A Žižekian Study of Toni Morrison's …
  14. Dodds Pennock, Caroline. (2012). "Mass murder or religious homicide? Rethinking human sacrifice and
  15. interpersonal violence in Aztec society." Historical Social Research/Historische
  16. Sozialforschung, pp. 276-302.
  17. Douglass, Frederick. (2008). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by
  18. Himself. Chapter X, in The Norton Anthology of American Literature.
  19. Fairclough, Norman. (1989). Language and Power. London and New York: Longman.
  20. Fuston-White, Jeanna. (2002). "From the Seen to the Told: The Construction of Subjectivity in Toni
  21. Morrison's Beloved". African American Review, Vol. 36, pp. 461-473. Doi.org/10.
  22. /1512209.
  23. Galtung, Johan. (1969). "Violence, Peace, and Peace." Sage Publications, Ltd. Research Journal of Peace
  24. Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 167-191.
  25. Genoese, Eugene. (1976). Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slave Made. Vintage, 12 Jan.
  26. Green, Melanie C., & Fitzgerald, Kaitlin; Moore, Melissa M. (2019). "Archetypes and Narrative
  27. Processes". Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 99–102.
  28. Harris, Samuel Benjamin. (2012). Free Will. Simon and Schuster.
  29. Harris, Trudier. (1990). "Escaping Slavery but Not Its Images". Toni Morrison – Critical Perspectives,
  30. Past and Present. Edited by Gates, Jr., Henry Louis and K. A. Appiah. New York: Amistad Press,
  31. Inc.
  32. Johnson, Walter. (2000). Soul by Soul: Life inside the Antebellum Slave Market. Harvard University
  33. Press.
  34. Kalyvas, Stathis N. (2006). The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge University Press.
  35. Lucas, Donald W. (1968). "Aristotle Poetics." The Classical Review 18.2.
  36. Macaulay, Zachary. (1824). Negro Slavery; or a View of Some of the More Prominent Features of that
  37. State of Society, As It Exists in the United States of America and in the Colonies of the West
  38. Indies, Especially in Jamaica. London: R. Taylor.
  39. Mayer, Arno J. (2006). The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions. New
  40. Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 38-38.
  41. Morrison, Toni. (1987). Beloved. New York: Random House.
  42. ---. The Bluest Eye. (1979). Great Britain: Chattu and Windas.
  43. Pennock, Caroline Dodds. (2012). "Mass murder or religious homicide? Rethinking human sacrifice and
  44. interpersonal violence in Aztec society." Historical Social Research/Historische
  45. Sozialforschung, pp. 276-302.
  46. Shasho, Nathan. (2015). Perspective: Making Sense of It All. History science, Critical Thinking Self
  47. Awareness.
  48. Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. (2017). Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American
  49. Culture and Literature. Columbia University Press.
  50. Žižek, Slavoj. (1991). Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture. MIT
  51. Press.
  52. ---. (2009). First as Tragedy, then as Farce. Verso, London.
  53. ---. (2008). Violence: Six Sideway Reflections. New York: Picador.
  54. Afshin Mosalla Nejad, Hassan Shahabi, & Shahram Raeisi Sistani- JNTELL, Volume 2, Issue 4, Winter 2023
  55. ---. (2002). Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates, New
  56. York: Verso.
  57. ---. (2011). The Year of Dreaming Dangerously. Verso Books, London.
  58. Whipple, Henry Benjamin. (1968). Da Capo Press, Reprint Edition, 1 Jan.
  59. Wilde, Oscar. (2021). The Soul of Man under Socialism. West Margin Press.