[Discussion] "IDENTITIES AND ALTERITIES"

[Gonul]

Not: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis discussion'un moderatörü
Fulya Ertem'in halen bulunduğu kuruluş.

---------------
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
University of Amsterdam

CALL FOR PAPERS
"IDENTITIES AND ALTERITIES"

Amsterdam, March 24-26, 2004

Keynote speakers: Peter Hitchcock, Brian McHale, N.N.

The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) invites proposals for
an
international conference on Identities and Alterities, to be held in
Amsterdam on March 24-26, 2004.

The conference will explore the concepts of identities and alterities,
their interrelations and their relevance in current academic, public,
and
political discourse and practice. The usability of the concepts of
identity, identities and identity politics is highly disputed, but it
nevertheless functions as an important term for the self-definition,
articulation and emancipation of individuals and groups. The concept of
"identity" has been much-criticized for its presumed tendency to
essentialism, where identity is primordial, given and determinate, as
well
as for its alleged positing of the subject as a complete, centered,
being
in complete control of his or her actions. However, as Paul Gilroy has
pointed out, "we make our identities, but with inherited resources and
not
under the circumstances of our own choosing."

In recent years, identity has ceased to be an individual, internal term
for subjectivity, but has evolved into a collective term with an
inextricable link to alterity, making it a highly useful tool for
political and historical analyses. Identities are continually
re-constructed, re-invented and re-interpreted in the light of political

developments (such as decolonisation), in the light of interactions with

the actual, external other (intersubjectivity), and in the light of our
position in a postmodern discourse.

We want to approach the concepts of identity and alterity from three
different angles:

- Postcolonialism: Formation as Representation/Representation as
Formation

This angle explores the concepts of identity and alterity in changing
societies in terms of Stuart Hall's ideas on the politics of
articulation
and representation, and their tactical value for establishing identity
in
terms of shifting alliances and a continuous redefinition of boundaries.

The very nature of the postcolonial necessitates an approach that takes
its complexity into consideration. The colonial experience is diverse in

space and time and should not be essentialised as a unifying force
between
different communities. As Richard Werbner puts it: "The postcolonial
describes at once a presence and absence. The now in tension with the
not-now, which creates a politicized reality."

In the contemporary postcolonial context we are faced with numerous
identity formations and representations. The question arises whether and

how these can be systematically accounted for. How do we deal with
identity formations that are "open-ended, productive and fraught with
ambivalence" (James Clifford), yet constitute and represent communities
with regard to cultural politics and global economies? And if identity
is
dependent on history and culture, what are the effects of colonization
and
decolonization on its conceptualization? Can indigenous identities
transcend colonial disruptions in terms of a shared past? In what way
can
a non-essentialist theory of identity engage with the reality of
conservative manifestations of identity politics?

- Intersubjectivity: Identities in-between self and other

We want to explore how identities are established and re-established in
and through intersubjectivity, in and through relations between self and

other, both individual and collective. The empirical, external other
emerges as a crucial force in relation to subjectivity, embodiment and
identity in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and in Peter Hitchcock's
elaboration of Bakhtin's concept of exotopy, which posits "outsideness
as
a form of affirmative alienation." Similar priority to the other as a
positive force has been given in various recent psychoanalytic
approaches
(Jean Laplanche, Kaja Silverman, Jessica Benjamin).

Questions we want to raise are: Can there be a subject or self without
the
other? Is there identity without alterity (without difference,
otherness,
the other)? In which ways can the other form and reform the self, both
in
line with and contrary to dominant cultural representations? What role
do
language, vision, the body, space-time, and translation play in the
process of establishing identities in-between self and other? How can we

formulate an ethics or politics of intersubjectivity? How do we
conceptualize intersubjectivity on the collective level of social or
political groups and/or in relation to postcolonialism and
transnationalism?

- Postmodernism: after and beyond the "death of the subject"

Postmodernism, understood as a discourse (Brian McHale), is preoccupied
less with the formation of identities than with their fragmentation and
ultimately, dissolution. However, the talk about the "death of the
subject" has by now grown somewhat stale and it also cannot account for
those individuals and groups who are not granted identity and
subjectivity
in the first place. The third panel will therefore raise the following
question: how can we theorize the identity of individuals and groups
within a postmodernist discourse, but in such a way that they retain or
gain agency?

Postmodern theories have to a large extent been preoccupied with the
epistemology of subjectivity as it had already been envisioned in German

idealism, and have neglected the active and narrative processes involved

in identity formation. We will therefore consider what role the
performative and performativity (Mieke Bal) play in producing identities

and alterities. It is in this context that the concept of alterity can
develop its full analytic potential, because it allows for an
intersubjective interplay between real, empirical groups and
individuals.
Questions to be asked include: what is the relation between identity and

alterity, between self and other in postmodernist discourses, artworks
and
political practices? How are identities and alterities produced,
performed, and challenged?

* * *

Participants should outline what conception(s) of identities and/or
alterities they are proposing, as well as their theoretical, political,
practical or cultural relevance. The concepts may be addressed together
or
separately and they may be correlated with cultural objects such as
film,
artworks, television, literature, photography, music, museums,
scientific
objects/practices, religious objects/practices, etc.

This conference is the latest in a series of ASCA graduate conferences
and
is inspired by the Theory Seminar organized by Mieke Bal in 2002-2003 on

"How to do Cultural Analysis." Participants will be expected to explain
how their work connects to the practice of cultural analysis. Papers
should aim to establish a dialogue between theory and cultural objects,
asking not only what the theory says about the object, but also what the

object says about the theory, how it prompts theoretical reformulations
-
what Mieke Bal calls "letting the object speak back."

Please send your one-page proposal, accompanied by a short CV, by
October
1st 2003.

Proposals will be selected according to their relevance to the topics of

the conference.

The workshop format of the conference is designed to stimulate the
discussion in the panels. Participants will be asked to send the final
version of their papers (4000 word maximum) by January 25th, 2004. A
reader will be prepared for each of the panels, which will be circulated

before the conference.

Instead of "reading" their papers at the conference, participants will
be
asked to give a 15-minute presentation on their work, connecting their
paper to the other papers in their panel and to the overall concerns of
the conference.

Please send your proposal to the ASCA office:

Dr. Eloe Kingma (Managing Director ASCA), Spuistraat 210, 1012 VT
Amsterdam, The Netherlands; tel. +31 20 525 3874, fax: +3120 525 3052,
asca@hum.uva.nl http://www.hum.uva.nl/asca>

Organizing committee: Dr. Silke Horstkotte, Anette Hoffmann, Saskia
Lourens, Esther Peeren