ABSTRACT
Herbert Marcuse (pp. 170–199) criticizes linguistics and analytic philosophy for taking as their object of study a language that is purged of the means for expressing any other contents than those furnished to people by the established society. He takes this as an index of lack of the critical stance—lack of negativity—that modern society requires most. This article suggests that such a critical stance is frequently included and performatively enacted in certain forms of traditional storytelling that juxtapose and negotiate points of view on traditional and nontraditional value systems.
