Freedoms of Speech: Anthropological Perspectives on Language, Ethics, and Power
Deep Insights
Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2025), 479 pp.
Contains bibliogr. pp. 391-442, index
Series: Studies in the Anthropology of Language, Sign, and Social Life Series
ISBN 978-1-4875-5022-6 (pdf); 978-1-4875-4884-1 (pbk)
"Bringing together leading anthropologists, this collection sheds light on the vast topic of freedoms of speech from a comparatively human perspective. Freedoms of Speech provides a sustained, empirical exploration of the variety of ways freedom of speech is lived, valued, and contested in practice; envisioned as an ideal; and mediated by various linguistic, ethical, and material forms. From Ireland to India, from Palestine to West Papua, from contemporary Java to early twentieth-century Britain, and from colonial Vietnam to the contemporary United States, the book broadly interrogates the classic vision of a singular “Western liberal tradition” of freedom of speech, exploring its internal complexities and highlighting alternative perspectives on the relationship between speech, freedom, and constraint in various times and places. Chapters analyse subjects commonly linked to freedom-of-speech debates, shedding new light on familiar topics that include campus speech codes, defamation, and press freedom, while also exploring unexpected ones such as therapy, gift-giving, and martyrdom." (Publisher description)
Introduction: Anthropologies of Free Speech / Matei Candea, Taras Fedirko, Paolo Heywood, Fiona Wright, 3
PART ONE: TRADITIONS AND COMPARISONS
1 Comparing Freedoms: “Liberal Freedom of Speech” in Frontal and Lateral Perspective / Matei Candea, 35
2 When Speech Isn’t Free: Varieties of Metapragmatic Struggle / Webb Keane, 55
3 Speaking for Oneself: Language Reform and the Confucian Legacy in Late Colonial Vietnam / Jack Sidnell, 73
4 Risking Speech in Islam / Ali-Reza Bhojani and Morgan Clarke, 94
5 Ten-and-a-Half Seconds of God’s Silence: Mormon Parrhesia in the Time of Donald Trump / Fenella Cannell, 111
6 Fascism, Real or Stuffed: Ordinary Scepticism at Mussolini’s Grave / Paolo Heywood, 131
7 The Imaginative Power of Language in the Vacated Space of “Free Speech” in Putin-Era Russia / Caroline Humphrey, 148
PART TWO: EXTENDING THE POLITICS OF FREE SPEECH
8 Designing Limits on Public Speaking: The Case of Hungary / Susan Gal, 169
9 Expression Is Transaction: Talk, Freedom, and Authority when Egalitarians Embrace the State / Rupert Stasch, 188
10 Dissent, Hierarchy, and Value Creation: Liberalism and the Problem of Critique / Natalie Morningstar, 210
11 The People’s Radio between Populism and Bullshit [Finland; Zambia] / Harri Englund, 225
12 Environments for Expression on Palestine: Fields, Fear, and the Politics of Movement / Amahl Bishara, 239
PART THREE: NARRATING, WITNESSING, TROUBLING
13 Freedom of Speech in Jeju Shamanism [South Korea] / Heonik Kwon, 259
14 Truth of War: Immersive Fiction Reading and Public Modes of Remembrance in an English Literary Society / Adam Reed, 267
15 As It Were: Narrative Struggles, Historiopraxy, and the Stakes of the Future in the Documentation of the Syrian Uprising / Andreas Bandak, 287
16 Historical Vertigo: Art, Censorship, and the Contested History of Bangladesh / Lotte Hoek, 302
PART FOUR: THERAPIES, INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE
17 Free Speech, without Listening? Liberalism and the Problem of Reception / Michael Lempert, 321
18 An American Canard: The Freedom of (Therapeutic) Speech / E. Summerson Carr, 344
19 Therapeutic Politics and the Performance of Reparation: A Dialogical Approach to Mental Health Care in the UK / Fiona Wright, 360
20 Secrecy, Curse, Psychiatrist, Saint: Scandals of Sexuality and Censorship in Global/Indian Publics / Sarah Pinto, 371
PART ONE: TRADITIONS AND COMPARISONS
1 Comparing Freedoms: “Liberal Freedom of Speech” in Frontal and Lateral Perspective / Matei Candea, 35
2 When Speech Isn’t Free: Varieties of Metapragmatic Struggle / Webb Keane, 55
3 Speaking for Oneself: Language Reform and the Confucian Legacy in Late Colonial Vietnam / Jack Sidnell, 73
4 Risking Speech in Islam / Ali-Reza Bhojani and Morgan Clarke, 94
5 Ten-and-a-Half Seconds of God’s Silence: Mormon Parrhesia in the Time of Donald Trump / Fenella Cannell, 111
6 Fascism, Real or Stuffed: Ordinary Scepticism at Mussolini’s Grave / Paolo Heywood, 131
7 The Imaginative Power of Language in the Vacated Space of “Free Speech” in Putin-Era Russia / Caroline Humphrey, 148
PART TWO: EXTENDING THE POLITICS OF FREE SPEECH
8 Designing Limits on Public Speaking: The Case of Hungary / Susan Gal, 169
9 Expression Is Transaction: Talk, Freedom, and Authority when Egalitarians Embrace the State / Rupert Stasch, 188
10 Dissent, Hierarchy, and Value Creation: Liberalism and the Problem of Critique / Natalie Morningstar, 210
11 The People’s Radio between Populism and Bullshit [Finland; Zambia] / Harri Englund, 225
12 Environments for Expression on Palestine: Fields, Fear, and the Politics of Movement / Amahl Bishara, 239
PART THREE: NARRATING, WITNESSING, TROUBLING
13 Freedom of Speech in Jeju Shamanism [South Korea] / Heonik Kwon, 259
14 Truth of War: Immersive Fiction Reading and Public Modes of Remembrance in an English Literary Society / Adam Reed, 267
15 As It Were: Narrative Struggles, Historiopraxy, and the Stakes of the Future in the Documentation of the Syrian Uprising / Andreas Bandak, 287
16 Historical Vertigo: Art, Censorship, and the Contested History of Bangladesh / Lotte Hoek, 302
PART FOUR: THERAPIES, INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE
17 Free Speech, without Listening? Liberalism and the Problem of Reception / Michael Lempert, 321
18 An American Canard: The Freedom of (Therapeutic) Speech / E. Summerson Carr, 344
19 Therapeutic Politics and the Performance of Reparation: A Dialogical Approach to Mental Health Care in the UK / Fiona Wright, 360
20 Secrecy, Curse, Psychiatrist, Saint: Scandals of Sexuality and Censorship in Global/Indian Publics / Sarah Pinto, 371
