The Intersubjective Ethic of Julieta Paredes’ Poetic

Authors

  • Tara Daly University of California, Berkeley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/bsj.2010.1

Keywords:

Community, Ethics and Body Politics, Feminism, Feminist Assembly, Graffiti, Mujeres Creando, Poetic Ethic, Public Space

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which the feminist activist group Mujeres Creando’s contemporary urban street performances and Julieta Paredes‘ poetry catalyze discussions around intersubjective ethics in the Andes. First, I discuss subjectivity as suspended in the inextricable space between embodiment and textuality, between the physical attributes of breathing bodies and the subsequent categorization of them in language and texts. Second, I argue that Mujeres Creando's and Paredes’ emphasis on the body as a site of active resistance to social norms contributes to the creation of what Emmanuel Levinas calls a “living poetic.“ 

This living, embodied poetic is less about producing a frozen "said," fixed in language than about creating  a breathing, moving "saying", as is perpetuated through spoken dialogue. The necessity for an ethical poetic emerges out of colonial conditions that have created definitions of the human and the “less than” or “other than,” often based on superficial physical categorizations. Ultimately, through their ongoing work, Mujeres Creando and Julieta Paredes expand the potential for a more inclusive community based upon mutual responsibility and respect for the self and other, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality. 

Author Biography

Tara Daly, University of California, Berkeley

This is my Bio Statement.

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Published

2011-01-15