Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World

Name: Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World
Price: 210 AUD
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ISBN: 9781611494624

Sharon Schuman

$210

Hardback

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English

University of Delaware Press
11 December 2013

Semantics; Literary theory; Ethical issues: abortion & birth control; Political science & theory

Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World argues that our most cherished ideas about freedom—being left alone to do as we please, or uncovering the truth—have failed us. They promote the polarized thinking that blights our world. Rooted in literature, political theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of language, this book introduces a new concept: dialogic freedom. This concept combats polarization by inspiring us to feel freer the better able we are to see from the perspectives of others.

To say that freedom is dialogic is to apply to it an idea about language. If you and I are talking, I anticipate from you a response that could be friendly, hostile, or indifferent, and this awareness helps determine what I say. If you look bored or give me a blank stare, I might not say anything at all. In this sense language is dialogic. The same can be said of freedom. Our decisions take into account the voices of others to which we feel answerable, and these voices coauthor our choices.

In today’s polarized world, prevailing concepts of freedom as autonomy and enlightenment have encouraged us to take refuge in echo chambers among the like-minded. Whether the subject is abortion, terrorism, or gun control, these concepts encourage us to shut out the voices of those who dare to disagree. We need a new way to think about freedom. Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World presents riveting moments of choice from Homer’s Iliad, Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Melville’s “Benito Cereno,”Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony,” and Morrison’s Beloved, in order to advocate reading for and with dialogic freedom. It ends with a practical application to the debate about abortion and an invitation to rethink other polarizing issues.

For more information, please visit: http://dialogicfreedom.weebly.com/.

By: Sharon Schuman
Imprint: University of Delaware Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 499g
ISBN: 9781611494624
ISBN 10: 1611494621
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 11 December 2013
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sharon Schuman taught literature and interdisciplinary seminars at Deep Springs College, Willamette University, University of Oregon, and Oregon State University.

Reviews for Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World

To see true dialogue as a way of allowing conflicting voices to hear and understand one another is to offer hope of some resolution in our current world of polarization and impasse. Sharon's book on Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World does just that, by taking us back to some great debates of literary art, like Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, in which dialogic freedom takes the liberating form of seeking out a continuum of layers of knowing, as Portia and Shylock fail to navigate a way of transcending the hostility and cultural deafness that holds them apart. This thoughtful book is timely in the best sense. -- David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago