Violence and the Arts of Resistance: An Expedition in Critical Communicology

Abstract

In this article, the author reviews conceptions of symbolic violence, especially that developed by Pierre Bourdieu, and argues that there are dimensions of the symbolic that are left unaccounted for by the idea that such violence is “gentle,” “quiet,” and “mitigated.” Group forms of communication under authoritarian and semiauthoritarian conditions of existence are drawn upon to show how traces of physical violence are lived and how forms of symbolic violence are conscious experiences for perpetrators and victims. Correlatively, opacity rather than absolute transparency of meaning marks effective resistance under such constraints—that is, emancipatory potential is not necessarily contingent on raising the normative bar but on foiling the dominant other's game in singular instances. Violence is understood here as both multivocal and redirectable, with those who resist using whatever means are available to counter actual and potential violation. The task for the critical communicologist is to take up gradations between and among forms of violence, as embedded in everyday practices and inscribed on human bodies and psyches, and to identify efficacious modes of resistance that illustrate the courage and subtle tactics of persons and groups who refuse subjugation. The author provides for such an analysis based on his fieldwork in Morocco.