What is a "problematic"?

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Used as a noun in a cultural theory context. I've been out of the academic loop for a while, and I hear this new term used by more than one prof.

Also, I don't think I've ever known precisely what "overdetermined" means -- according to Websters, having more than one psychological causation?

― Leee O'Gaddy (Leee), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

A problematic is something that must be teased out.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:51 (twenty-one years ago)

it is something which is or could be problematic, no?

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i have absolutely never heard this used as a noun. the idea is horrifying.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing in the academy could be so straightforward oops!

― Leee O'Gaddy (Leee), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Eh, lit students'll make up any shit to sound proper.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:56 (twenty-one years ago)

they've gotten to you! that's what they want you to think!

xpost

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 April 2004 05:57 (twenty-one years ago)

No, it's definitely a noun in the cloistered world of academia.

If I recall correctly, I think the 'problematics' of a particular text/event basically refers to the whole schema of potential philosophical lines of inquiry one can take when addressing it. So like if some prof says, "let's tease out the problematics of Condi Rice's testimony." He's not asking what the fuck what Condi said means politically for the GOP or the Dems, nor does he really give much of a fuck about what she said on a literal basis. He's asking, how do we approach this? What are the salient aspects of the event itself? And what interpretive methodologies should we use? Literary criticism of the spoken text itself? A critique of the way the hearing was broadcast and reported by various media with varying interests? What it meant for an African-American woman in that position of power to be interrogated by a bunch of old-guard geezers. And so on; all those aspects of the event itself represent its 'problematics', and invite interpretation from differing philosophical perspectives.

It's just a dumb code-word for like, thinking critically. I think.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 9 April 2004 06:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"Always already" is the one that really gets my goat, though.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 9 April 2004 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a total ghostbusters scenario.

― Nellie (nellskies), Friday, 9 April 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

arrrgh i hate that "always already" shit too.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 9 April 2004 07:15 (twenty-one years ago)

me too....mostly. but do we have a better word or term for it. cos "always already" does mean something.

also "the problematics of..." is more common than "a problematic". Refers to a set of issues, ideas and questions around a (normally contested (heh, another one), humanities / social sciences) subject.

― paulhw (paulhw), Friday, 9 April 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

depends on the lit yr addressing. in social science "problematic" is likely to mean something (a theory or set of social processes) that has been canonized and laid to rest, but in fact operates in a more complex way than previously thought--and therefore needs to be re-examined. example the "problematic" of the gender concept.

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 9 April 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks Orbit, that sounds like the closest use that I heard it in (pop culture).

― Leee O'Gaddy (Leee), Friday, 9 April 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been planning on calling my first album "Always Already" since Berkeley. It's very MBV.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 9 April 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

A problematic is a problem that isn't really a problem to you, but you pretend it is in order to get tenure.

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Friday, 9 April 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

And "always already" is kind of fun if you say it with a Yiddish accent.

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Friday, 9 April 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

what the hell is "always already"? Is this something that came about after I left college? Or was I not paying attention (likely)?

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 9 April 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I've not heard it either.

― Leee O'Gaddy (Leee), Friday, 9 April 2004 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

when I was at berkeley the english dept. didn't get all academic-speak on your ass as an undergraduate until you were a senior and then they expected you to know who Bahktin was.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 9 April 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

It's some Derrida thing. I can't really remember what it's supposed to mean.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 9 April 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

My own sense of it would date back to film theory c.1960s-1970s.

"The Westerns of John Ford all inhabit a shared problematic" (+ "in which race and nation are staged and explored"?)

etc.

So, I don't think of this as a very NEW thing.

Actually, it strikes me now that Althusser may have started it.

― the bellefox, Sunday, 11 April 2004 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I also do not understand this 'always already'.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Sunday, 11 April 2004 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I got an assignment back in my first year at uni with notes from the teacher including "this paragraph is problematic". She didn't say why so I was kind of left hanging on that one.

― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Sunday, 11 April 2004 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

always already = deconstructive logic, I think. The non-privilaged invisible term in the opposition is found with a close reading to already be there with the emergence of the privileging of the visible term in the opposition. Because the metaphysicks of presence sez this is the way we structure all knowledge, the logic goes that the invisible term in the structure not only already exists to drive the emergence of the privileged term but in every instance will have done so?

Been a few years since I read me derrida, tho.

― plebian plebs (plebian), Sunday, 11 April 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Um... Thanks.

― Prude (Prude), Sunday, 11 April 2004 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

One day, I will point Sinker to this thread, and he will sink it.

― the bluefox, Monday, 12 April 2004 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

They only manufacture them in Europe, but you can buy one elsewhere as an import.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 12 April 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

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