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“How Shall I Say it … ?†Relating the Nonrelational

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  • Paul Harrison

    (Department of Geography, University of Durham, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, England)

Abstract

As the ideas of the relational and relationality become part of the everyday conceptual make-up of human geography, in this paper I seek to recall the insistent and incessant importance of the nonrelational. In dialogue with nonrepresentational theory, as well as its critics, I suggest that any thought or theory of relationality must have as its acknowledged occasion the incessant proximity of the nonrelational. The occasion for this discussion is a consideration of the relationship between suffering, pain, or passion and the thematising actions of representation, communication, narrativisation, and theorisation. Such affections, it is claimed, present social science with a particular problem, a problem which revolves around an irreducible nonthematisability within these dimensions of corporeal existence. Drawing on the writings of Butler, Derrida, and Levinas I offer an account of how this problem or impasse allows for a rethinking of the ethical within social analysis and of the nature of representation, corporeality, and intersubjectivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Harrison, 2007. "“How Shall I Say it … ?†Relating the Nonrelational," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(3), pages 590-608, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:39:y:2007:i:3:p:590-608
    DOI: 10.1068/a3825
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Noel Castree & Thomas MacMillan, 2004. "Old News: Representation and Academic Novelty," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 469-480, March.
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