Constative vs Performative
After reading Honig and discussing it in class, I have found this distinction to be of particular interest when talking about Arendt. Arendt’s unwillingness to publicize her religion and background makes a lot of sense to me and I understand that she does not want to draw attention to it because it could detract from her overall message. This fits because she already talks about how the realms of labor of work have become excessively interwoven with the public but on some level I think that she has to address constative facts about herself which have a great effect on the performative statements she is trying to make. Surely, living through two world wars, one in which her entire religion was persecuted, influences what she is saying and why she is saying it. Like Scholem, I do not think that she necessarily owes anything to the Jewish faith, but along the lines of Honig I think she can integrate it, or at least directly address it in her writing. Conceptually, I do not accept Arendt completely shutting out the private realm from politics but I feel that that is mostly because her idea of what should be in the private realm is significantly larger than what I consider it to be.
"Arendt’s unwillingness to publicize her religion and background makes a lot of sense to me and I understand that she does not want to draw attention to it because it could detract from her overall message."
ReplyDeleteI think this is also the case for the fact that she is a woman. At this point female scholars were not common, and there probably was a certain amount of interest lost due to the fact she published under her name which is easily identified as a woman's. So although she has very profound points to make about politics, her work went largely unaddressed in the past because of that bias. However, now that there has been some progression on gender equality her work has been resurfaced for discussion. I find it odd that feminists criticize her, as I think they would have more understanding of her work if they recognized it was published in a time that was difficult for women to get heard, particularly so in the case of politics.
I can see that gender and religion can be constative if you do not flaunt. Them around, however some people do project such identities in a way that can be categorized as performative.
I totally agree with the notion that her message could be compromised if she discloses her religion- I was immediately struck with the similarities between Arendt and Rachel Carson, who hid her cancer while writing silent spring. I disagree with Honig, however, and think that she shouldn't acknowledge her faith, because I feel that it would detract from her argument more than it would add to her reader's understanding of where she is coming from.
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