Playfulness in Conversation with Others
Language is also a place of struggle - Bell Hooks,
In Playfulness, "World"-Travelling, and Loving Perception, Maria
Lugones recommends taking up a particular attitude of playfulness
as an affirmation of plurality in response to the difficulties
created from being constructed and essentialized as an outsider. In
this essay, I would like to take up this attitude of playfulness
and apply it the the realm of words and language in order to
present it as another means of lessening the dangers of Speaking
for Others as described by Linda Alcoff. The concept of playfulness
developed here will be helpful with respect to many avenues: in
particular, employing playfulness in the discursive realm creates
the possibility of both using and dismantling norms; of being open
to mistake and critique; of making meanings that are plural and
shifting; Most interestingly, playfulness has a potential of
changing the dynamic of power relations because of its tendency to
undermine formalized relations to authority and conventional
communication. As we unpack the concept we will need to engage with
the inevitable obstacles and limitations of such a project and as
such, we are continually obliged to contextualize and refine the
term to maintain its efficacy. Ultimately however, with the help of
a few examples, I hope to forward the notion that employing
playfulness in language is an effective method of challenging norms
given the proper context.
A popular question raised when meeting someone new, especially
in a multicultural urban city, is where are you from? Only problem
is, when I am asked this, the question is basically void of meaning
because I have moved around so much. So I resort to answering a
different question, well, I lived in XYZ before I lived here, or I
ask them to clarify the question, Do you mean where I was born? or
I just avoid the question, and come up with a particular response.
Of course, whatever answer I do give with regards to nationality,
has to come with some qualification; that is, sometimes the
question asked is really a question about skin color and
race.[footnoteRef:0] In contrast, normal and everyday
laymanconversation, where the people having the conversation
understand each other fine, there is no need to ask what someone
means because language has not [yet] failed. However, it seems that
for those on the margin, the potential of failing to communicate is
much sooner, and one is, at least more immediately, forced to
confront the realities of location and otherness. I open with this
anecdote to both help in grounding this text within a particular
context, as well as to employ an example of playing with meanings
as a method of accommodation and representation; if I
care[footnoteRef:1] about having a good conversation, I play with
meanings in order to come up with relatively satisfying responses
to conventional questions, and carry on the conversation; if I
didnt care, and this would depend on my mood and attitude, I would
respond to convention with convention, and the conversation would
be uninteresting and routine. [0: See Bayoumi, 2010. ] [1: It may
be possible to think of loving playfulness in response to care, as
will be distinguished below. ]
In her description of a loving playful attitude, Lugones is
pointing to a way of making connections with others
