%0 Journal Article
%T “I,” “We,” “They” – The Grammar of Self-Narrative: Reflections from the Times of Pandemic
%A Sławek, Tadeusz
%J Konteksty Kultury
%V 2021
%R 10.4467/23531991KK.21.004.13534
%N Volume 18 Issue 1
%P 47-58
%K “I”, “we”, “they”, cruelty, values
%@ 2083-7658
%D 2021
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/konteksty-kultury/article/ja-my-oni-gramatyka-opowiesci-o-sobie-rozwazania-w-czasie-pandemii
%X With the use of journals by Samuel Pepys written during the 17th-century plague epidemic in London, we discuss the issue of weak and strong evaluation discourses which create the subjectivity of an individual in its relation to a group. Our fundamental goal is therefore to discover the conditions indispensable for the emergence of a “person” whose life retains the ability to refer to “strong” moral concepts, which is necessarily connected with a phase of critical approach to hegemonic discourses. In our analysis of the text by Pypus, we postulate the emergence of a “we” phase which allows for critical reflection and temporarily frees a “person” from petrifying discourses imposed by the social “they.” This makes it possible for the “person” to come into existence and critically approach the “understanding of everyday estimations”; this takes place by referring to the strong value of opposition against “cruelty,” but this reference is fleeting and does not endure in further questioning.