Situating normality: the interrelation of lived and represented normality

In this paper, I will investigate the potential of what I term Merleau-Ponty’s ‘situated phenomenology’ for an investigation of normality from within and from without. First, I will argue that the concept of situation in the Phenomenology of Perception demarcates Merleau-Ponty’s turn from a mere epistemological to a concrete critical phenomenology. Second, I will apply Merleau-Ponty’s concept of situation as being situated and as being in situation to an investigation of normality. In doing so, I endeavor to differentiate between lived and represented normality, a difference which in turn corresponds to an operative (immanent) and established (external) normativity. A situated account of normality thereby combines a phenomenological and a genealogical perspective. My aim is to provide a toolkit to investigate the intertwinement of represented and lived normality, that is, of being situated and being in situation.