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Witnessing the Postmodern Jeremiad: (Mis)Understanding Donna Haraway's Method of Inquiry

2001; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/con.2001.0002

1080-6520

Ingrid Bartsch, Carolyn DiPalma, Laura Sells,

Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies

The jeremiad, a rhetorical form that borrows its name from the biblical prophet Jeremiah, is a lament that foretells cultural downfall. In contrast, "the American jeremiad," writes Sacvan Bercovitch, "was born in an effort to impose metaphor upon reality. It was nourished by an imagination at once defiant of history and profoundly attuned to the historical forces that were shaping the community." 1 Like the American jeremiad, Donna Haraway's work is a litany of hope, one that attempts to impose metaphors, or promising monsters, that are at once articulated by, attuned to, and defiant of the historical forces that shape oppression in a postmodern world.