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ANNE ZAVALKOFF
ABSTRACT
This paper draws on Mary Dalys creative, connective use of the written
word to challenge David Abrams central argument in The Spell of the
Sensuous: that alphabetic writing and literacy are primarily responsible
both for dulling human sensory perception and for severing a deep con-
nection between humans and the natural world. It does so by outlining
Abrams central claim, investigating the parallels and important differ-
ences between Abrams and Dalys work, and examining the strategies
for reconnecting with the living world that emerge from Dalys prose.
Ultimately, this paper argues that the ways in which people interact with
all language have a greater impact on their perception of and connec-
tion to the natural world than whether they live in oral or literate com-
munities.
ABRAMS ARGUMENT
Abram maintains that prior to textual literacy human communities
lived in intimate, reciprocal, communicative relations with the more-than-
human world (1996, 11617). Instead of using their surrounding environ-
ments for strictly human ends, he argues that oral communities generally
respected and valued the natural worlds life, intelligence, and language to
the same extent that they valued those qualities in humans (1523). Ac-
cording to Abram, part of this respect for the living world and all of the
entities within it was rooted in indigenous communities sensory percep-
tions of them. He maintains that these communities perceived their sur-
roundings differently than do literate societies, experiencing their worlds
as actively communicating, sentient beings.
Enacted primarily in song, prayer, and story, among oral peoples lan-
guage functions not simply to dialogue with other humans but also to
converse with the more than human cosmos, to renew reciprocity with
the surrounding powers of earth and sky, to invoke kinship even with
those entities which, to the civilized mind, are utterly insentient and
inert. (7071)
According to Abram, oral cultures deepened perceptions of the pulsing
life around them was not merely visual or auditory, but synaesthetic. As
such, their thick sensory perception involved a concerted activity of all the
bodys senses as they function and flourish together(59). Abram argues
that this intertwining of the senses of individuals in indigenous commu-
nities, and their resulting augmented perceptions, enabled them to develop
reciprocal, participatory relations with their surroundings.
To help flesh out the character of this type of enhanced perception,
Abram draws on the foundational writings of a number of phenomeno-
logists, but particularly on the writings of Merleau-Ponty and his under-
standing of perception and reciprocity. Perception, in Merleau-Pontys
work, is precisely this reciprocity, the ongoing interchange between my
body and the entities that surround it (Abram 1996, 52). As interpreted
by Abram, Merleau-Pontys writing demonstrates that humans are in con-
stant dialogue with the natural world, forever affecting and being affect-
ed by it and all of the entities within it. This reciprocal relationship is not
merely one of conscious, human action and automatic, non-human reac-
According to Abram, the great challenge set to Jewish scholars is the con-
tinual discovering of varied ways of interpreting the same text, precisely to
reveal its complexity and dynamism. Each person who engages with Jew-
ish teachings in this way must struggle to make them relevant to her own
interactions in/with the world (245). This requirement to enter into an
active engagement with text results from the Jewish understanding of text
both as living and as highly relevant to every unique, yet similar, sphere of
lived experience. Just as Abram argues that it is the culture of oral commu-
nities which enables their interactions with language to be connected to
the more-than-human, it is the culture of Hebrew communities which en-
ables their interactions with text to be connected to the more-than-human.
Thus, it seems that if people orient themselves towards written words both
as the first type of Spelling invites and as Abram argues many Jews still do,
all forms of phonetic writing have the potential to be alive and connected
to a world beyond text, beyond humans.
Dalys second type of Spelling also highlights the nature of human
locatedness and the fundamental limitations of Abrams discussion of the
NOTES
1. When not using her own Wickedary English, Daly frequently uses the term
patriarchy to refer to the widespread oppression of women by men. I believe
this use of the term draws excessive attention to a type of oppression which is
based solely in gender, assuming there is such a relation, thus ignoring the
interdependency of oppressions. As a result, while it would be nearly impos-
sible to discuss Dalys work without referencing her use of the term patriar-
chy, it should be noted that I am not particularly comfortable with the term as
used by Daly.
2. In this paper, I will not engage with the body of criticism that maintains that
Abrams work in The Spell of the Sensuous is problematically romanticized
and colonialist. Indeed, Abrams arguments may be fairly critiqued for my-
thologizing and universalizing the experiences of many diverse oral cultures.
However, my desire here is to demonstrate that even when Abrams central
conceptions are assented to in full, the soundness of his arguments are still
open to question.
3. An important note: while Abram cautions that a continued involvement with
print is likely to further human dislocation, he recognizes that literate societies
cannot, and should not, simply abandon the written word.
REFERENCES
Abram, David. 1996. Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Random House.
Daly, Mary. 1968. The Church and the Second Sex. New York: Harper and Row.
. 1973. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Womens Libera-
tion. Boston: Beacon Press.
. 1978. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston: Beacon
Press.
. 1984. Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy. New York: HarperCollins.
. 1992. Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage. New York: HarperCollins.
Daly, Mary., and Jane Caputi. 1987. Websters First Intergalactic Wickedary of the
English Language. Boston: Beacon Press.