'Politesse,' Power, and Point of View

One avenue for exploring a concept such as 𠇄politeness” is to look at it relationally: to investigate contrasts and co-occurrences, and to situate usages in time and place. La Politesse, the essay by Henri Bergson that serves as stimulus for this panel, offers a set of contrasts among different possible senses of the term—different possible definitions of “politeness”—rather than with forms of impoliteness (although those are mentioned too). Which is “true” politeness, for him, and why? After a brief look at Bergson’s three types, there follows a discussion of his audience and his historical moment. Then his three types are compared with discourse in some other times and places, such as: European royal courts and a rising bourgeoisie, rural communities in Senegal, an encounter in early nineteenth-century America, seventeenth-century Quakers, youth movements in the 1960’s. What these cases show is the importance of social positioning and differences in point of view, such that “politeness” is entangled in a clash of values. At issue is the relationship among politeness as conventions of manners, sincerity and truth, and the possibilities of critique and social change.