Hey bloggers!
This week in ASTU, as we continue exploring the theme of trauma, we are reading an excerpt from Judith’s Butler’s book, Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? In particular, we are currently looking at trauma in context of 9/11 and its aftermath. In the excerpt, one of the main ideas that Butler presents is that individuals are vulnerable. Humans are social beings and our existence is relative as well as dependent upon the existence of others. We are able to acknowledge our interdependent relationships we have with others by accepting our own vulnerability. Butler also notes that individuals and societies have different interprative frames or mindsets in which we see things through. These interpretative frames can determine if society or an individual sees onself or itself as vulnerable with or against others as a result of interdependent relationships.
After reading Butler’s excerpt, and seeing her arguments against individualism as well as further discussing interpretative frames that shape our own actions, I thought of how mindsets reflect in different languages. For instance, where English is spoken, there tends to be an individualistic mindset, whereas where Mandarin is spoken, it tends to have a more general mindset. For instance, in Mandarin, there are no inflections of nouns, pronouns, verbs, or adjectives for the word itself. Words such “me,” “my,” “we,” or “I” all use the same character. Unlike in English, there are also no verb tenses or conjugations. The distinctions between a language like English and a language like Mandarin reflects the differences in the frames of how people think from the two different societies. Language is the most common way in which people communicate. Our thoughts are shaped, whether apparently or subtlely, by distinctions in languages.
It can be difficult to see out of your own interpretative frame and understand others through different frames of thinking. Butler makes the point that we all have frames in which we see things, but in order to understand and accept our vulnerabilities, we must be able to see through different frames. Especially in the globalizing world today, it is essental that we are able to understand that there are different frames through which we can interpret events.
Until next time,
Elizabeth