Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

131

Cigdem Yazici

Date

2010

Document Type

Dissertation (Access Restricted)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Philosophy

Committee Chair

Thomas Nenon

Committee Member

Bill E. Lawson

Committee Member

Deborah Tollefsen

Committee Member

Robert Bernasconi

Abstract

The history of Western philosophy tends equate the status of being historical for a people to the status of being a politically organized state. This equation fails to acknowledge the historicality of peoples and individuals, who have not united as states, for example, tribes, nomadic peoples, diasporic peoples, or oppressed groups under the dominance of a state. To legitimize the historicality of people regardless of membership in a state, the dissertation attempts to construct a broader understanding of historicality. To this end, I appeal to Heidegger's account of historicality as it emerges from his account of the work of art. I find in Heidegger's account a broader understanding of historicality as he provides an alternative to the previous ideas by offering the idea of language as poetry for grounding the essence of historicality. Yet, I proceed to criticize his account to the extent it leads to shared assumptions with the promoters of European colonialism. To juxtapose Heidegger's account with a non-eurocentric account of historicality from the perspective of the colonized, I conclude by referring to various thinkers in post-colonial theory, such as Frantz Fanon and Aurora Levins Morales, and by providing critical remarks from a personal personal perspective.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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