Terrorist violence and the enrollment of psychology in predicting Muslim extremism: critical terrorism studies meets critical algorithm studies

Discourse on terrorist violence has long facilitated an especially liberal form of securitisation. Originally evoked in reference to anarchists and communists, a rational consideration of terrorist violence, inaugurated by the concept, asks for deferred judgement about the nature of, or reasons behind, violence related to terror on the premise that state and international legal norms governing the legitimate use of violence fail to circumscribe the proper capacities of the state to regulate and explain terrorism. Where sovereign powers along with their military and civilian instruments of coercion are deemed unable to regulate violence effectively, analysts of terrorist violence and their readership are invited to consider and cultivate new sensibilities. Beginning in the 1980s, studies by psychologists found renewed urgency among a growing cadre of interdisciplinary terror experts who found religion, Islam especially, a key variable of analysis. I situate their contributions in a longer history of secular and racialising discourse about terrorist violence. Central to this history are practices of reading, translating, interpreting and archiving texts. Evidence for the argument is based on the analysis of an algorithm that allegedly predicts the likelihood of terrorist strikes by counting words spoken by al-Qa?ida leaders and correlating their frequency with over 30 psychological categories.     

‘Flat and fabulous’: women’s breast reconstruction refusals post-mastectomy and the negotiation of normative femininity

The ‘pinkification’ of breast cancer culture in recent years conflates women’s empowerment with the celebration of hyperfemininity. Consistent with this trend, reconstructive surgery post-mastectomy is increasingly normalised: restoring the breasts is to restore ‘lost’ femininity. Contextualised within the pressures of this normalisation, our article explores how women who decide against breast reconstruction negotiate their non-normative ‘flat’ bodies. We examine women’s posts in a breast cancer forum about their refusals of breast reconstruction. Using thematic and feminist post-structuralist analyses, we suggest that although health and body acceptance discourses enable resistance to embodied femininity norms, pressures to conform permeate practices related to appearance. Clothes and prosthetic breasts enabled forum participants to pass as ‘healthy’, ‘whole’, and ‘recovered’. The study’s findings emphasise the limitations to agency and resistance that emanate from the ways constraining gender discourses infiltrate every aspect of a woman’s life. In line with a critical awareness approach to breast cancer education, we discuss the possibilities of resistance afforded by the safe spaces of online communities.     

资本话语与构建社会主义和谐社会——一种社会意识形态层面的论析

本文认为:在当下中国学术界理论界由种种与马克思不同甚至是根本对立的关于“资本”的观点和看法,汇集形成了一种颇具声势的“话语”;这种“资本话语”使得社会主义和谐社会建设的基本认识基础、深层价值纽带和根本指导思想都处于一种“不在状态”,因而不利于社会主义和谐社会建设。     

"美丽"的可能与"纯洁"的必要——中国当代文学中女性形象的话语变迁及其文化意义

通过对显示女性外在身体特征的"美丽"或"丑陋"与代表女性内在思想境界的"纯洁"或"淫荡"四个元素及其内涵外延的变异体认,可以清晰地考察出建国后半个多世纪以来中国当代文学中的女性形象所经历的巨大话语变迁.1976年之前女性的"美丽"与"纯洁"有着政治一体化年代特有的鲜明意识形态色彩,改革开放之后"美丽"的突围与在暧昧境地中挣扎的"纯洁"则越来越表现出了消费时代女性话语的新症候.女性话语五十多年来的沧桑流变既是时代观念变动的结果,也有女性主义思潮崛起后的文化原因,更是在不同流通机制运行下文学艺术的不同"叙述"方式使然.     

The `Ideal' Victim v Successful Rape Complainants: Not What You Might Expect

This article proposes that feminist legal critics need to be able to explain how some rape cases succeed in securing convictions. The means by which rape cases are routinely disqualified in the criminal justice system have received widespread attention. It is well established in feminist legal critique that female complainants are discredited if they fail to conform to an archaic stereotype of the genuine or ‘real’ rape victim. This victim is not only morally and sexually virtuous she is also cautious, unprovocative, and consistent. Defence tactics for discrediting rape testimony involve exposing the complainant's alleged failure to comply with the sexual and behavioural standards of the normative victim. This understanding of how rape complain(an)ts are disqualified is not predictive, however, of the complainants whose cases succeed in securing convictions. This article reviews some successful Australian rape cases and considers the ways in which they disturb feminist understandings of how rape complaints are discredited in the criminal justice system. It proposes that recent research analysing the discourse of rape trials provides a way of explaining the apparent discrepancies between the ‘ideal’ rape victim and successful complainants. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

论《水浒传》具体性描写的话语意义

《水浒传》开始出现了由英雄和普通人共同参与其间的日常生活,这种生活是在一种具体性描写中得到展现的。具体性描写对小说话语的形成具有创造性贡献。在直观、具体、呈现式的描写中,话语不仅具有不确定性、多义性和对话性,而且含混、反讽、矛盾、背离、造成反向阅读的语义也开始形成。由此,小说所提供的普泛原则和抽象的道德判断,也在其自身的具体性描写面前仅具有相对的意义。从小说史看,在《水浒传》中形成的具体性描写对后世长篇小说的话语形式产生了深远影响。     

传统叙事话语的颠覆与消解--论"前先锋派"小说的现代性

20世纪80年代中期,以写"城市文化"为代表的"前先锋派"青年作家群,如刘索拉、徐星等,以强烈的叛逆精神,从生存方式的批判角度,挑战权威,消解正统,其作品刻意表现平庸、荒诞、滑稽,以揭示现代人的生存状态、精神焦虑与迷惘的情绪.其文本叙事广泛采用反讽与黑色幽默的表达技法,在揶揄调侃中达到对传统叙事话语的颠覆和消解.     

思想政治理论课教材话语体系“接地气”的转换探索

在社会经济形势快速变化、大学生认知接受心理呈现稳定的代际差异等情形之下,需要从四本全国统编教材所涉理论知识的拓展、中央重大会议精神的主动学习、社会经济最新动态信息的及时追踪以及师生良性互动机制的科学构建等途径,探明思想政治理论课教材话语体系转换所接"地气"的真切图景,全面推动话语体系"接地气"转换的创造活动。     

规则、话语与范式:乡土社会场域下的纠纷解决

乡土社会的纠纷解决过程体现出乡土社会内部规则与外部规则的交涉,大众话语和精英话语的对话。通过国家与社会范式对乡土社会纠纷解决的分析,可以发现,乡土社会法律多元的实质是多元权力的交涉和互动,并由此可以进一步揭示乡土社会纠纷解决的法治意义。     

论作为知识分子写作方式的晚清散文话语建构

梁启超、严复、王韬等晚清的思想者散文家,以散文的方式参与其时代话语的建构.他们的写作凸现着作为公共知识分子写作所通常具有的模式特征.时代的命定、社会身份的规定和个人特殊的心路历程等因素,决定了他们的散文--晚清主流散文,是以时代主题的表达为要务的.这一类散文有着思想的偏至和审美的弱化等特点.