The Center for Interpretive & Qualitative Research (CIQR -- "seeker")
Presentation:
Oct. 19 (Thurs.), 2006: 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Berger Gallery, 207 College Hall, Duquesne University
Dr. Andreea Deciu Ritivoi,
Carnegie Mellon University, Department of English
"Strategies of Dissent: Lessons from
Paul Ricoeur for a New Rhetoric of Solidarity"
Abstract: In this paper I rely on insights from Paul Ricoeur's phenomenology and political philosophy in order to propose a conception of solidarity that can explain the rhetorical strategies used by oppositional movements that seek to escape the control of a violent and repressive nation-state. I then apply this conception of solidarity to a rhetorical analysis of the political writings of Adam Michnik, leader of the Solidarity movement that opposed the communist regime in Poland in the 1980s. Much of the scholarship on solidarity tends to identify it as a labor relation, without stressing enough the importance of a sense of reciprocity developing among the actors involved, and prompting mutual support and assistance. This paper traces Ricoeur's effort to define a space of social and political interaction in which solidarity is the result of personal mutual recognition, and can be obtained through compassion and empathy rather than commitment to an abstract ideal.
MINUTES of Oct. 19, 2006: Dr. Andreea Deciu Ritivoi, Carnegie Mellon University, Dept. of English, presented her paper, "Strategies of Dissent: Lessons from Paul Ricoeur for a New Rhetoric of Solidarity." In her talk, she emphasized how Ricoeur's philosophical concepts help us to see the roots of the Polish solidarity movement in personal mutual recognition rather than in an abstract ideal. Ritivoi revealed how this mutual recognition based solidarity appears in the rhetorical strategies of the solidarity movement and in the writings of one of its major leaders, Adam Michnik. Her interesting talk provoked discussion among the thirty some attendees and went past the usual closing time.
