Narrative Deliberation? On Storytelling as a Necessary Component of Public Deliberation

This paper deals with the place of narrative, that is, storytelling, in public deliberation. A distinction is made between weak and strong conceptions of narrative. According to the weak one, storytelling is but one rhetorical device among others with which social actors produce and convey meaning. In contrast, the strong conception holds that narrative is necessary to communicate, and argue, about topics such as the human experience of time, collective identities and the moral and ethical validity of values. The upshot of this idea is that storytelling should be a necessary component of any ideal of public deliberation. Contrary to recent work by deliberative theorists, who tend to adopt the weak conception of narrative, the author argues for embracing the strong one. The main contention of this article is that stories not only have a legitimate place in deliberation, but are even necessary to formulate certain arguments in the fi rst place; for instance, arguments drawing on historical experience. This claim, namely that narrative is constitutive of certain arguments, in the sense that, without it, said reasons cannot be articulated, is illustrated by deliberative theory’s own narrative underpinnings. Finally, certain possible objections against the strong conception of narrative are dispelled.

Technical metaphor in Spanish-English translation of the fields of blindness, fatigue, and the spiritual world

The correspondence in the Spanish-English translation is analyzed of three different fields of technical metaphors based upon blindness, fatigue, and the spiritual world. Some terms have been left aside that under the appearance of metaphors were mere samples of no-deviated language or cases of homonymy. The study reveals a higher presence of the metaphor in the Spanish language in the three fields of study, although the English language also shows a high index of metaphors. In between metaphors and non-metaphors, we find a lack of metaphorical equilibrium between Spanish and English in certain cases, which is a sign of the different perception of the reality. Finally, the conclusions shed light on the meaning of these words: blind, annoyance, fatigue, antifading, core, angels, espectrum, phantom, ghost, magic, postmortem, dead, etc.

On the brink of madness: Leituras do tema da loucura na obra pré-heteronímica de Fernando Pessoa

O tema da loucura na obra pessoana tem sido objecto de várias aproximações interpretativas, decorrentes da multiplicidade de textos que fazem eco do fenómeno e da sua persistência enquanto topos ao longo de praticamente toda a sua produção. Na sua acepção literal, manteve constantes interferências com a dimensão empírica do autor sobretudo quando sustentadas na contingência de certos textos basilares, os quais têm vindo a ser questionados quanto ao seu valor estritamente testemunhal. Como fenómeno desde cedo relacionado com a criação artística, a loucura surge neste estudo não apenas na representatividade da condição distintiva do sujeito criador mas ainda como figuração da contingência que envolve qualquer acto criativo que tome a linguagem na sua dimensão essencialmente metafórica e ambígua. Neste sentido, o presente trabalho pretende a abertura de várias vias de leitura do fenómeno através da análise crítica dos vocabulários relativos a diferentes âmbitos e concepções de loucura e a sua relação com o génio (capítulos I e II), focando o seu interesse no que diz respeito a alguma produção pessoana pré-heteronímica, nomeadamente Charles Robert Anon, Alexander Search (capítulo III) e Jean Seul de Méluret (capítulo IV), a que acrescentaremos o Primeiro Fausto (capítulo IV), de modo a conseguirmos estabelecer uma possível relação entre as primeiras experiências de alterização e a descoberta simultânea da irredutibilidade do discurso literário face a tentativas de literalização e de racionalização da linguagem, defendidas por outros modelos (paradigma biologista). A identificação da ambiguidade e da ironia nas suas mais variadas acepções como componentes essenciais da aprendizagem do valor contingente do processo de criação contribuirá tanto para a definição da autonomização da literatura como para a redescrição moderna do sujeito criador, paradoxalmente investido do pathos criativo anunciado no Romantismo e confrontando-se com os seus limites, que corresponderão aos da própria linguagem, situação de crise de que a figuração do louco lúcido será um dos tópicos mais produtivos. ABSTRACT: The theme of madness in the Pessoa work has been the subject of several interpretive approaches, from the multiplicity of texts that echo the phenomenon and its persistence as a topos priority over virtually all its production. ln its physiological sense, remained constant interference with the empirical dimension of the author when sustained in the contingency of certain basic texts that have been questioned as to their strictly testimonial value. As early phenomenon associated with artistic creation, the madness in this study is not only representative in the distinctive condition of the subject creator but also as the contingency figuration involving any creative act to take the language mainly in its essential metaphorical and ambiguous dimension. Accordingly, this work intends to open several analysis manners of the phenomenon through critical analysis of vocabularies for different areas and concepts of madness and its special relationship with the genius (Chapters I and II), focusing its interest in respect to some of the previous-heteronomy Pessoa production, including Charles Robert Anon, Alexander Search (Chapter III) and Jean Seul de Méluret (Chapter IV), and the Primeiro Fausto (Chapter IV), among others, to establish a possible relationship between changing early experiences and the discovery simultaneous literary discourse of irreducibility in the face of the attempts of literacy and the rationalization of language defended by other models (biologist paradigm). The identification of the ambiguity and irony in its many different meanings as essential components of learning the contingent value of the creation process which will contribute to the definition of empowerment in the literature as to the redescription of the modem subject creator that paradoxically had the creative pathos announced in Romanticism and from the confrontation with its limits, which will correspond to the language itself, the crisis situation from which the mad-lucid figuration will be one of the most productive topics.