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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: August 31, 2002
Latest Update: August 31, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Powerfully Imaginative Speech

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, August 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

On Saturday, August 31, Donna Marie Woods wrote: Subject: Moral Textures

Hi Jeanne,

Please let me know if I am misinterpreting the writing. Pia Lara, pg., 2 - Cultural Interpretation of Speech Act. "To attain such a mutual understanding, I claim, one must first address the other with a powerfully imaginative speech, not only to attract attention of ‘alter’, but also to open up possibilities for creating different kinds of recognition…"

When psychologists began investigating the murder rate by women who had been battered, they brought it to the attention of the legal system, which was leveling extremely harsh sentences on these women. There was no recognition that these women were tortured individuals acting in self-defense. Thus, psychological investigation provided discourse, which brought recognition and understanding to a condition of mistreatment that was long ignored.

Good example, Donna. I think this is just what Maria Pia Lara is talking about. In order for the discourse of the judicial system to be transformed we needed to find powerfully imaginative speech to convince people to listen to the stories of battered women, after which their perceptions changed, and the law with it.