Agentic Orientation as Magical Voluntarism

Joshua Gunn · Dana L. Cloud

52 citations0/0 files storedCommunication Theory

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Rhetoric and Communication Studies Linguistics and Discourse Analysis Foucault, Power, and Ethics

Abstract

In this essay we argue that the rhetoric of Foss, Waters, and Armada's recent work on “agentic orientation,” as well as the rhetoric of the popular bestselling DVD and book The Secret, are typical of “magical voluntarism.” Magical voluntarism is an idealist understanding of human agency in which a subject can fulfill her needs and desires by simple wish-fulfillment and the manipulation of symbols, irrelevant of structural constraint or material limitation. Embracing magical voluntarism, we argue, leads to narcissistic complacency, regressive infantilism, and elitist arrogance. A more materialist and dialectical understanding of agency is better.

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References

1991Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity 1990The Logic of Practice 2011Bodies That Matter 1991Postmodernism, or, The cultural logic of late capitalism 1994Bodies that Matter: on the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'1998What Is Agency?2012The History of Sexuality: An Introduction 2010Nicomachean Ethics

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