ABSTRACT

Through an account of the forms of embodied knowledge that arise at the intersection of autism and childhood sexual abuse, this personal-theoretical essay develops an epistemology of the unspeakable. I uncover the epistemic implications of a common response to ‘unspeakable’ accounts of injustice, namely the expression of shock and surprise. Furthermore, informed by feminist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist works, I describe an interplay between social positionality and what I call ‘non/presence’, illustrating the ways in which ubiquitous norms obscure themselves, especially from the sights and minds of the people who are not harmed by them. Finally, I discuss ways of looking critically at and beyond mechanisms of shock and non/presence. I do so through emphasising the power of hermeneutical tools and resources developed by marginalised epistemic communities, and highlighting their usefulness in advancing what would otherwise remain illegible bodily knowledge into a coherent narrative.

摘要

通过对自闭症和儿童性虐待交叉点出现的具身知识形式的描述，这篇个人理论文章发展了一种无法言说的认识论。我揭示了对“无法形容的”不公正描述的共同反应的认知含义，即表达震惊和惊讶。此外，根据女权主义、反种族主义和反资本主义的著作，我描述了社会地位与我所谓的“非/在场”之间的相互作用，说明了无处不在的规范如何掩盖自己，尤其是从不受他们伤害的人。最后，我讨论了批判性地看待和超越震惊和不存在机制的方法。