Making a quote (and a reader) feel at home
(1) The Cut-and-Paste (aka the hit and run, aka the “who’s that guy”). Social equivalent: some guy walks up to a group of people, catches the last thing someone said, and blurts something out that he hopes is related. Awkward silence ensues.
Tropic‘s project, then, has much in common with recent reconsiderations of universalism. Aggressively countering the delusional “we” at the heart of unidirectional deployments of universalism (such as Eurocentricism, colonialism, imperialism, racialism, nationalism, sexism, paternalism, heterosexism, and more) has been central to the anticolonialist, antiracialist, antisexist scholarship of the late twentieth century. We can’t just get rid of this crucial concept, however. “Without a universalism of sorts—the idea of human rights, for instance—a truly democratic society is impossible” (Laclau 122).
(2) The Interruption. Social equivalent: some guy enters the same conversation above and, instead of waiting until you’ve finished your thought, he finishes your sentence for you. You’re impressed that he is able to seamlessly meld his or her grammar with your own, but most people seem kind of freaked out. Who invited that guy?
Tropic’s project, then, has much in common with recent reconsiderations of universalism. Aggressively countering the delusional “we” at the heart of unidirectional deployments of universalism (such as Eurocentricism, colonialism, imperialism, racialism, nationalism, sexism, paternalism, heterosexism, and more) has been central to the anticolonialist, antiracialist, antisexist scholarship of the late twentieth century. We can’t just get rid of this key concept, however, because “without a universalism of sorts—the idea of human rights, for instance—a truly democratic society is impossible” (Laclau 122).
(3) Beginning to Frame it out: controlling and situating other voices
Tropic’s project, then, has much in common with recent reconsiderations of universalism. Aggressively countering the delusional “we” at the heart of unidirectional deployments of universalism (such as Eurocentricism, colonialism, imperialism, racialism, nationalism, sexism, paternalism, heterosexism, and more) has been central to the anticolonialist, antiracialist, antisexist scholarship of the late twentieth century. Generally traced back to Descartes and the ascendancy of the Enlightenment through thinkers like Rousseau and Montesquieu, the history of universalism is a history of a tool of oppression—the discursive and material coerciveness of a few who presume to speak for all. What complicates this rendition of universalism, however, is the pivotal place that universalism occupies in progressive political movements. As Ernesto Laclau writes: “without a universalism of sorts—the idea of human rights, for instance—a truly democratic society is impossible” (122). Laclau is representative of the poststructuralist attempt at recuperating universalism principally through the discourse of human rights and progressive politics.
(4) Fully Framed
Tropic’s project, then, has much in common with recent reconsiderations of universalism. Aggressively countering the delusional “we” at the heart of unidirectional deployments of universalism (such as Eurocentricism, colonialism, imperialism, racialism, nationalism, sexism, paternalism, heterosexism, and more) has been central to the anticolonialist, antiracialist, antisexist scholarship of the late twentieth century. Generally traced back to Descartes and the ascendancy of the Enlightenment through thinkers like Rousseau and Montesquieu, the history of universalism is a history of a tool of oppression—the discursive and material coerciveness of a few who presume to speak for all. What complicates this rendition of universalism, however, is the pivotal place that universalism occupies in progressive political movements. Ernesto Laclau encapsulates the paradoxical role of universalism succinctly: “without a universalism of sorts—the idea of human rights, for instance—a truly democratic society,” he contends, “is impossible” (122). Recent recuperation of universalism starts from precisely this oppressive/progressive function of universalism, and Laclau is representative of the poststructuralist attempt at recuperating universalism principally through the discourse of human rights and progressive politics. As the poststructuralist recuperation argues for the perennial relevance of universalism without relying on foundational tenets (claims about the essence of “human nature”), it distinguishes itself from the rationalist defense of universalism, best represented by Habermasian use of rationality as the foundational feature of humans and the speech act.
General Rules:
(1) Avoid the hit-and-run and the blend (numbers 1 and 2 above). Use strategic combinations of the fully framed and the lightly framed models. When in doubt, frame it out.
(2) Longer, more complex quotes call for more elaborate framing. Few quotes speak for themselves, so use framing strategies–set-up and follow-up especially–to relate the quote more closely to the matter at hand.
(3) Add signal phrases to break up long quotes and to gain control of the voices in your paper.
(4) Set off longer quotes with colons rather than commas.
Okay, so it’s easy enough to make a single quote feel right at home, but what happens when there are multiple voices to handle at once?