12h45 - 14h  
D.041 Bâtiment Dupriez  

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Tamar Tskhadadze

"Cancel culture" has gained significant attention in recent years. One of its most controversial aspects is its application to classical texts or the literary canon. A well-known example is the debate over removing Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from academic curricula. In this discussion, I will refer to such actions as "cancelling."

This paper explores the concepts of epistemic injustice and epistemic oppression to analyze and evaluate the phenomenon of "cancelling." Specifically, I examine how insights into epistemic injustice can substantiate normative claims regarding the removal of canonical texts. Among the various forms of epistemic injustice identified in the literature, two are particularly relevant:

• Hermeneutical injustice – biases and gaps in mainstream, hegemonic, or dominant hermeneutical resources (Fricker 2007).
• Willful hermeneutical ignorance – occurs when those in dominant positions refuse to acknowledge epistemic tools developed from the lived experiences of marginalized groups (Pohlhaus 2012).

I will outline two distinct arguments for "cancelling" based on these concepts. The first emphasizes the harm caused by biases and blind spots in dominant hermeneutical resources. The second, a more moderate perspective, is grounded in considerations of distributive justice.