Unthinking philosophy: Aimé Césaire, poetry, and the politics of Western knowledge

Allen-Paisant, Jason

doi:10.1080/14788810.2020.1816129

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This does not yield the classification of humans as either “rational” (able to abstract from and thus rule the natural world) or “primitive” (unable to perform such feats of abstraction and hence subject to domination); rather, this discursive system also posits that there is knowledge to be gained from looking at “the other”—whether a person, place, or period of time. Otherness and the constant identification of what is other in contrast to the self is therefore inherent in Euro-modern epistemology, not only with regard to being human but also in relation to time: the “past” or “history” is demarcated from the present and future as its “other” (Allen-Paisant, 2020; De Certeau, 1988). This is especially interesting in the context of memory studies, because, as Allen-Paisant (2020) has pointed out, these basic assumptions on which the Euro-modern tradition of thought is based further rely on the “inexorable forward-moving logic of time” (p. 10).…”

Section: Starting a Dialogue: Memory And Contradiction Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Otherness and the constant identification of what is other in contrast to the self is therefore inherent in Euro-modern epistemology, not only with regard to being human but also in relation to time: the “past” or “history” is demarcated from the present and future as its “other” (Allen-Paisant, 2020; De Certeau, 1988). This is especially interesting in the context of memory studies, because, as Allen-Paisant (2020) has pointed out, these basic assumptions on which the Euro-modern tradition of thought is based further rely on the “inexorable forward-moving logic of time” (p. 10).…”

Section: Starting a Dialogue: Memory And Contradiction Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why collective memory can never be pluriversal: A case for contradiction and abolitionist thinking in memory studies

Antweiler

2023

Memory Studies

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Bringing together memory studies with the emerging field of contradiction studies, in this article, I suggest the need for an alternative way of thinking about collective memory by juxtaposing the ideal of wholeness that necessarily underlies any group’s identity with that of the inevitable contradiction of the plurivers. I discuss the power of the Western narrative order in regard to the Haitian Revolution and examples of mnemonic disharmony in contemporary Germany and seek to illuminate the epistemic violence constitutive of this narrative order. The article therefore interrogates memory study’s epistemological foundation and the practices in which these underpinnings result. The aim is to highlight the potential of contradiction in an attempt to pluriversify responses to the past as well as future visions for the worlds we live in. Special attention is paid to the question of what it is we hope for when attempting to (scholarly) contribute to making collective memory more inclusive, and where the limitations of this might lie. The purpose of my contribution, then, is to explore the tacit imperative of harmony that often remains unchallenged in memory studies, and to propose a shift in focus, from the ways in which memory might help us understand (e.g., current clashes of identities), toward a research agenda that is considerate of its own entanglements with power, yet, at the same time, lives up to its potential to contribute to transformation.

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Section: Starting a Dialogue: Memory And Contradiction Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Starting a Dialogue: Memory And Contradiction Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why collective memory can never be pluriversal: A case for contradiction and abolitionist thinking in memory studies

Antweiler

2023

Memory Studies

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“…5 This moral dimension of history (and memory) is based on the idea that our history is a universal phenomenon that follows a linear, progressive evolution. This ontology has been much criticized for its coloniality, especially the problematic references made to history that seem to lead us in a certain direction and to pursue specific ends (Allen-Paisant, 2020). In this regard, Foucault (1977) suggested that, instead of insisting on its linearity and presupposing a teleological evolution, we should contemplate the ruptures and contradictions of history:History becomes “effective” to the degree that it introduces discontinuity into our very being—as it divides our emotions, dramatizes our instincts, multiplies our body and sets it against itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory as a means of governmentality

Antweiler

2023

Memory Studies

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The article proposes to pursue Memory Studies as Studies of Governmentality. It aims to demonstrate how an analysis of memory, undertaken from the perspective of governmentality, can provide an important diagnostic of our time(s) and its political conditions, while furthermore illuminating how these are derived from narratives about the past. For this, I put into dialogue theoretical considerations of the Foucauldian concept with findings from a study of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. With a special focus on public memories that are performed and produced at the juncture of Holocaust memory and advocacy for human rights, this article puts forward an innovative approach to public memory’s entanglements with contemporary politics and subsequently argues that any public memory can in the broader context of governmental rationalities be understood as a technique of government itself.

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“…However, as the literature included in the conceptual framework demonstrates, it is not innocent or neutral to divide up ways of living one's life into a (hierarchical) duality and ascribe a positive and desirable connotation to the one and a negative and subordinate connotation to the other (cf. e.g., Allen-Paisant, 2021;Cavarero, 2017;Lettow, 2017;Mbembe, 2016;Nye, 2013;Okin, 2013;Park, 2013). It is not merely operating as a metaphor or rhetorical trope (cf.…”

Section: Ego-logical and Non-ego-logical Ways Of Being In The Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a childist theory of democratic dannelse: An argument for the radical potential of more age-inclusive scholarly imagination

Hedegaard

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This dissertation uses the case of the Danish state school to study the democratic aspect of education – in Danish referred to as ‘demokratisk dannelse’. Drawing on a poststructuralist framework and the concept of childism, the dissertation draws attention to how a historically ingrained deficit-perception of the child underlies democratic dannelse in both theory and practice. This is fundamentally a marginalizing and colonizing starting point in that it involves the claim that the child cannot speak as a political subject before it has learned to speak in the ‘right’ (presumed democratic) way. The dissertation draws together two different types of analysis (one focused on discourse, the other on practices in schools) through multiple conceptual lenses and discusses how the lens of childism can potentially widen the epistemological space through which the democratic aspect of education can be understood. Rather than focusing on ‘preparing’ children and young people for (future) democratic life, childism allows for concepts like ‘voice’, ‘participation’, ‘rights’, ‘politics’ and ‘democracy’ etc. to be reimagined in more age-inclusive ways. From a childist perspective, the democratic task of education becomes that of supporting and responding to the student as the political subject it already is. This, the dissertation argues, has a radical and far more democratic potential.

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Unthinking philosophy: Aimé Césaire, poetry, and the politics of Western knowledge

Abstract: This is a repository copy of Unthinking philosophy: Aimé Césaire, poetry, and the politics of Western knowledge.

Cited by 5 publications

References 11 publications

Why collective memory can never be pluriversal: A case for contradiction and abolitionist thinking in memory studies

Why collective memory can never be pluriversal: A case for contradiction and abolitionist thinking in memory studies

Memory as a means of governmentality

Towards a childist theory of democratic dannelse: An argument for the radical potential of more age-inclusive scholarly imagination

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