__________________________________________________
Call for Papers
"Otherness and the Arts: Interdisciplinary Approaches to
Otherness and Alterity in Literature, Film and Culture"
Global Conference
Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick
University of Aarhus
Aarhus (Denmark)
8-9 August 2008
__________________________________________________
The Delphic injunction to know thyself, to understand
oneself as self, entails alienating self-reflection and the
awareness that the limits of any entity, hence its
individuation, are determined by what lies outside these
borders - otherness. But where is this division between the
I and other located? How is this schism constructed? Or can
this schism even be discerned? Instead, the injunction of
the Arts articulates an inverse yet more immediate approach
to the problem of knowing thyself. It entails an
understanding of oneself as other: the boundary between "I"
and "that which I am not," necessary for our constitution as
subjects, dissolves in our Homeric hero's proclamation
"Nobody - that's my name."
We invite papers and speakers across a broad spectrum of
interests which might connect with the following ideas:
Otherness and fear are two concepts that offer an intriguing
dynamic of cause and effect: the 'otherness' approached in
the experience of fear almost acts as a mirror of both
personal and public anxiety or terror of the other. In
consequence, representations of 'otherness' are all too
often dark and fearful, dominated by hesitation and
repression. In much art and literature, shadows of the other
abound, haunting the disillusioned subject with reminders of
a dark and unrepresentable object ('absolute otherness' or
'the real') that is so intrinsic to subjectivity.
What specific role does the other play in the formation of
normative/deviant subjectivity? As speaking subjects
constituted through processes of signification, the
otherness of our subjectivity becomes most profoundly known
when the ineffable other of psychic disorder disrupts our
sense of internal coherence and linguistic transparency: as
speaking subjects, we are thus faced with painful paradoxes
of needing to, but being incapable of, voicing the intense
subjectivity inherent in experiences of inexpressible mental
suffering. Painfully located beyond the realm of
signification, the otherness of pain and psychopathology is
characteristically circumnavigated as a consequence of
sanity's supposed 'sameness' promoted by Western ideals;
however, it is always already resonating in the lacunae
among articulations of the wounded self.
Figures of otherness do not only form a part of our
contemporary literature, art, and critical theory but also
of dominating Western political rhetoric. The 'othering' of
vast numbers of the world's population by European colonial
thought depended on the construction of a series of binary
oppositions. Colonial discourses conceived of the alterity
of the non-European subject in terms of terror or
deficiency, a figure that provided the threat of both
similarity and difference. The colonised land offered a
consequence free site for European transgression, an
unleashing of an unfamiliar self/other from the bounds of
civilisation, a doorway into a heart of darkness. How can we
ethically relate to, represent, and narrate the inaudible
voices of the subaltern, concrete marginalized others
embedded in the materiality of everyday existence, if the
absolute other is inevitably translated into a relative or
relational other within the economy of the self-same?
Similarly, when otherness is seen through a gendered lens,
how is it possible to undermine self-enclosed signifying
systems that exclude feminine identity and disavow sexual
difference? Can the other be known without recourse to the
self? Is it possible to distinguish other-than-self from the
other defined by and for itself, as well as otherness qua
construct from otherness qua ontological category?
In our rapidly changing world, dominated by communication
technology, we are ever faced with encounters with 'other'
cultures and arts. Nonetheless, we continue to erect and
enforce borders and boundaries between peoples and
countries. As a natural course of conflict, this complicates
relations to and understandings of cultural others and
otherness; thus, it compels exigent discussion. When the
world is simultaneously increasing and decreasing in time
and space, creating a world increscently global yet local,
uniform yet diversified, which brings into relief the vexed
politics of 'othering' and 'saming', how does one navigate
and negotiate cultural identity? In this context, how does
the self and the same coexist with the other in an at times
estranged and estranging transcultural urban milieu?
It is precisely this variety of formulations, the polysemy
of alterity, which this conference wishes to examine from
divergent disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. Its
aim, therefore, is to convene on the notion of Otherness as
a site for critical, socio-political, cultural, and literary
exploration.
Welcome topics include but are not limited to the following:
* Otherness in Cultural Representation
* Hybridity, Creolization, and the Global other
* Memory, History, Trauma, and Otherness
* Ethics, Responsibility, and the Other
* Sexuality, Gender, the Body and the Other
* M/other / Sm/other: Engendering Otherness
* Ambivalence and Otherness: Mimicry & Menace
* Absolute Otherness vs. Self-Same Other
* Monstrosity, Spectrality and Terror of the Other
* Uncanny or Abject Others; or The Familiar Other
* The Sublime or the Unimaginable Other
* Malignant Otherness: Madness/Sadness
* Healing Otherness: Sanity & Suffering
* Pathography: Voicing the Otherness of Pain
Invited keynote speakers:
* Luce Irigaray (to be confirmed)
* Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo
* Svend Erik Larsen, University of Aarhus
* Eugene O'Brien, University of Limerick
* Ann McCulloch, Deakin University
And Tabish Khair will be giving a reading.
Procedure for submitting proposals for papers
The conference is open to scholars and students of all
disciplines. Those wishing to participate in the conference
are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words
to <[email protected]> by Thursday, 15 May,
2008. The convenors will let the proponents know whether
their proposals have been accepted no later than 15 June,
2008. Papers may be given in English with citations in any
language, and are limited to 20 minutes. Selected papers
will be eligible for publication in a peer reviewed academic
journal, and possibly a hard copy edited essay collection.
All questions regarding conference content (abstracts,
presentations, speakers etc.) may be directed to the
convenors at: [email protected]
For more information see our website at:
http://www.othernessandthearts.org
__________________________________________________
InterPhil List Administration:
http://interphil.polylog.org
Intercultural Philosophy Calendar:
http://cal.polylog.org
