Full entry in ECC

“…In Arendt’s reappropriation, the pariah appears as an “alternative” contrasting the assimilated, who seeks social “adjustment” (1979: 56). The assimilated (parvenu) tries to escape her condition (or identity feature) that is under social attack. Pariahs, on the other hand, start an “emancipation of their own” (2007: 276). Retaining their uniqueness, defying dominant opinions and exclusionary behaviors, they hold up a “mirror” to the society that rejects them.”