Excesses, Resisting Interpretation, and the Negative in Three Latin American Imaginaries
This article will explore three ethnographies - of Brazilian Umbanda, Cuban espiritismo, and Chilean ufology - whose cosmoses are variably self-referential, paradoxical, and absurd. I follow their anti-logics and argue that they exhibit, firstly, an excess, and secondly, a resistance to interpretati...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Religion and society
Year: 2024, Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Pages: 60-75 |
| Further subjects: | B
Paradox
B Negation B excess B resisting interpretation B Apophasis |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article will explore three ethnographies - of Brazilian Umbanda, Cuban espiritismo, and Chilean ufology - whose cosmoses are variably self-referential, paradoxical, and absurd. I follow their anti-logics and argue that they exhibit, firstly, an excess, and secondly, a resistance to interpretation. Taking my concept of excess from Marisol de la Cadena, and of resisting interpretation from Susan Sontag, I argue that a radical version of resisting interpretation must go beyond experience and describe ontological evacuation itself - a "nothingness"that holds all possibilities simultaneously; or an excess that contradicts either-or logics. I suggest we look at both the horror narrative and apophatic mysticism, which resist thought itself, as well as language, for a heuristic that is able to deal with ethnographies that defy logics of meaning or common sense. |
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| ISSN: | 2150-9301 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion and society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2024.150105 |
