Theatres of Truth: Against Interpretive Hegemonies

Session Submission Type: Virtual Created Panel

Session Description

Our panel draws from this year’s theme of pluralism to interrogate a number of interpretive practices that, when placed in critical relief, cultivate dangerously narrow conceptions of identity and modes of judgment. Respectively, our papers explore: the political effects of potentially atavistic authenticity claims; the hollow redemption conveyed by religious discourse when courts administer the sentence of death; the value placed on sincerity in politics today and its relationship to theatrical acting styles; and the challenge candor poses to the rise of a judicious social media user. Although distinct in topic, our papers deploy an historically-minded approach to contemporary problems in order to demonstrate how robust political, social, and legal pluralisms can dismantle persistent – and often harmful – notions of authenticity and sincerity, candor and religious truths. Collectively, we ask: how might we unsettle narrow fields of meaning, such that diverse forms of claims-making can be recognized and valued? We endeavor to answer this question by drawing from a set of non-traditional texts like public speeches, court transcripts, playscripts, and theatrical performances – and, in doing so, craft a new political theory of pluralism that disassembles and rebuilds the promise of the personal in the public sphere.

Sub Unit

• Division 3: Normative Theory

Individual Presentations

• The Janus-Faced Tendency of Authenticity Claims - Nina Hagel, Wesleyan University

• Religious Discourse and Capital Punishment in Late Liberalism - Kathryn A. Heard, Dickinson College

• Acting Styles and Political Representation - Katherine Goktepe, Yaşar University

• Eighteenth-Century Figures in Twenty-First Century Media Theory - Nathan Gies, Towson University

Chair

• Patrick Giamario University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Discussant

• Lori Marso Union College