Knot/Knot*: From Metaphorization to Matterphorization of Academic Discourses
Filip Ryba
f.ryba@doctoral.uj.edu.plInstitute of Archeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1624-7257
Abstract
This article attempts a critical reflection on the metaphorization of contemporary theoretical discourses, using the example of the metaphor of the knot. The author demonstrates its performativity by dissecting the conventionalized metaphor of the Gordian knot into figures of knot (tied deliberately), knot* (tangled accidentally) and loop, which entail different visions of reality and different logics of its problematisation and conceptualisation. He refers to examples of academic texts (Dipesh Chakrabarty, Donna Haraway, and Elaine Gan and Anna Tsing) in which the knot and the epistemological questions inscribed in this metaphor play an important role. He also shows the implications of reading onto-epistemological projects through the logic of the knot, which he sees in Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, and the logic of the knot*, which he sees in Graham Harman’s object-oriented ontology. Given the significance of materiality in contemporary academic discourses, the author postulates that the term matterphor, as proposed by Lowell Duckert and developed in various currents of environmental humanities, should be introduced into Polish discourse. He believes that the potential of the new term lies in the fact that it makes it possible to combine the performativity of language and the performativity of matter so as not to efface the emergent and contingent character of the world from academic systems of conceptualising reality.
Keywords:
metaphor, matterphor, knot, new materialism, performativityReferences
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Authors
Filip Rybaf.ryba@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
Institute of Archeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1624-7257
Filip Ryba – graduate in cultural studies and Asian studies (specialization in the Middle East), he is pursuing an interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary PhD at the Jagiellonian University Doctoral School in the Humanities. An activist, member of the Team of Indisciplined Anthropology, Collegium Invisibile, and Inspireurope branch in Krakow. His research focuses on the modernity of the Middle East in a posthuman and postmodern perspective with reference to postcolonial reflection. He also cooperates with the (pop)cultural journal "Popmoderna". His research as part of the NCN project Po kryzysie klimatycznym. Nieskalowalne strategie przetrwania w fabulacjach spekulatywnych ostatnich dwóch dekad (headed by Mateusz Borowski) examines contemporary Lebanon (in the period from the July War to the present) seen as a fantasy and fiction about (un)possible futures. He is primarily interested in attempts to juxtapose new theoretical perspectives with the post- and neo-colonial reality of the Middle East.
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