Otherness Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In this paper I discuss in a critical manner what I believe to be some of the more interesting contributions of Anthony Steinbock’s book Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology after Husserl. I will thus refer mainly to his... more

In this paper I discuss in a critical manner what I believe to be some of the more interesting contributions of Anthony Steinbock’s book Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology after Husserl. I will thus refer mainly to his clarification of the constitution of familiar and alien objects or states of affairs through appropriation and transgression. In connection with this I will try to put forward some of the advantages and implications of a phenomenological approach to the problem of historicity in terms of generativity. However, I will also discuss some of the limitations and problems of Steinbock’s approach. I believe that most if not all of these problems are related to his understanding of the relationship between static, genetic and generative phenomenological methods. Therefore I will devote some lines to discuss this issue and to rethink some of Steinbock’s main theses under the light of another way of understanding the relationship between these methods as well as the task of the philosophical inquiry proposed by phenomenology.

This work studies the use of disinformation to construct an image of otherness through the internet. We applied a content analysis methodology to the 161 racist, xenophobic or Islamophobic fake news pieces that were discredited in 2020 by... more

This work studies the use of disinformation to construct an image of otherness through the internet. We applied a content analysis methodology to the 161 racist, xenophobic or Islamophobic fake news pieces that were discredited in 2020 by the four Spanish information verification media entities accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network: Maldita.es, Newtral, Efe Verifica and Verificat. The results show that the most commonly used formats were image and video, that disinformation was most often based on taking information out of context and deception, and that the source could not be identified. The most shared characteristics associated otherness with receiving aid, violence and illegal immigration. The most commonly used images were photographs, which mostly showed people in a general manner (not individually). Despite this, disinformation was * This research has been carried out in the framework of the project entitled “Strategies, agendas and discourse in electoral cyb...

This work assesses the representation of the Ainu people through the early travelogues made in Japan during the 1910s, focusing on those made by Benjamin Brodsky. Considering filmic representation of the Ainu people in relation to their... more

This work assesses the representation of the Ainu people through the early travelogues made in Japan during the 1910s, focusing on those made by Benjamin Brodsky. Considering filmic representation of the Ainu people in relation to their social context, the analysis reveals how these images projected a deceptive ethnicity belonging to a time prior to the moment they were filmed. Filmmakers created an imagery of the “primitive Ainu” aimed at attracting a Western audience by showing an exoticism of a cultural and geographically distant people. These images projected ahistorical views of the Ainu, concealing their adaptation to modern life and assimilation to the Japanese culture and way of life. A critical approach to these captivating images reveals the premeditated construction of Ainu ethnicity and casts doubt on the validity of these moving images as a social witness.

Tratando de buscar la mejor forma de exponer la presente apuesta educativa, me atreveré a entrar en contacto con la experiencia, a resurgir, una vez más, en esta existencia acogiendo lo que acontece en mi tránsito como maestra. Para ello... more

Tratando de buscar la mejor forma de exponer la presente apuesta educativa, me atreveré a entrar en contacto con la experiencia, a resurgir, una vez más, en esta existencia acogiendo lo que acontece en mi tránsito como maestra. Para ello pondré en diálogo los referentes teóricos de mi proyecto de investigación fenomenológica en torno a una anécdota personal que será narrada por partes que aparecen al iniciar cada apartado del presente capítulo y, en la cual, se deconstruye lo que he pensado, lo que he sentido, lo que he dicho, lo que he hecho y lo que he sido, con el fin de brindar otros horizontes de sentido a la vocación del ser maestro.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians have been othered in American society due to racism and xenophobia because some view them as responsible (as individuals or as a community) for causing and spreading the virus. In response to... more

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians have been othered in American society due to racism and xenophobia because some view them as responsible (as individuals or as a community) for causing and spreading the virus. In response to the nationwide surge of anti-Asian hate crimes, the author, an Asian American preacher, suggests a revitalization of ren (仁), the foundational concept of the collectivist culture of East (Southeast) Asian society and also the essence of Confucianism, as an indigenous homiletical voice. The paper explores the distinctive conception of otherness-in particular, the heart of compassion (惻隱之心, ceyin zhi xin) and righteousness (義, yi)-in ren as an alternative concept for mitigating controversial features of Levinas's ethical project. Further, the author proposes revitalizing ren in preaching so that the praxis of compassion and resistance combines with the dynamic of biblical lament as a homiletical strategy.

El presente trabajo tiene como objeto un análisis de la obra The Taming of the Shrew de William Shakespeare poniendo énfasis en las relaciones de alteridad que se manifiestan entre los personajes, especialmente el que existe entre las... more

El presente trabajo tiene como objeto un análisis de la obra The Taming of the Shrew de William Shakespeare poniendo énfasis en las relaciones de alteridad que se manifiestan entre los personajes, especialmente el que existe entre las hermanas Katherine y Bianca. La condición de outsider entre los personajes femeninos en las piezas de Shakespeare, según Marianne Novy, suele no ser fija, y eso se ve reflejado tanto en Katherine como en Bianca. Lo que este trabajo se propone es dejar de manifiesto que ese movimiento, de outsider a insider o viceversa, es performativo, es decir, que es el resultado de las acciones y no parte de la esencia, de la condición ontológica de los personajes.

Dans The Tempest de W. Shakespeare, Foe de J.M. Coetzee et Solaris de S. Lem, l’écriture de l’altérité est liée à celle de l’insularité. Caliban et Friday sont des figures de l’autochtonie représentatives de l’Autre colonial ; la planète... more

Dans The Tempest de W. Shakespeare, Foe de J.M. Coetzee et Solaris de S. Lem, l’écriture de l’altérité est liée à celle de l’insularité. Caliban et Friday sont des figures de l’autochtonie représentatives de l’Autre colonial ; la planète Solaris, à la fois lieu et personnage, ailleurs et autre, permet d’explorer ce lien entre l’altérité et l’insularité. L’éloignement et la clôture spatiale de l’île dessinent une épistémologie de l’altérité qui est toujours pensée via ce modèle spatiale — et qui pose la question de la possibilité de la rencontre. Il s’agit dans ce mémoire d’explorer les représentations de l’autre et leurs enjeux poétiques, éthiques et épistémologiques.

" Many Times " , é uma instalação de Juan Muñoz apresentada pela primeira vez em 1999. Como descreve o catálogo da Retrospectiva de Serralves em 2008: é uma obra composta por uma centena de figuras, vestidas de forma idêntica e com... more

" Many Times " , é uma instalação de Juan Muñoz apresentada pela primeira vez em 1999. Como descreve o catálogo da Retrospectiva de Serralves em 2008: é uma obra composta por uma centena de figuras, vestidas de forma idêntica e com feições semelhantes, todas modeladas a partir de um busto que Muñoz descobriu num hotel, uma cabeça art noveau em cerâmica, com feições asiáticas. Reunidas aos pares ou em pequenos círculos e muitas vezes aparentemente mergulhadas em conversa, elas formam uma multidão densa, em interação. Avaliando-se umas às outras e reagindo entre si, por vezes ignorando-se mutuamente, entre elas parecem desenrolar-se inumeráveis dramas. O espaço vazio da galeria que rodeia e separa as figuras individuais está carregado com a tensão criada pelo grupo. Nós, espectadores (?) caminhamos por entre os grupos, cruzamo-nos com uma ou duas figuras que parecem interagir connosco, ou podemos, quase " escutar as conversas " dos grupos mais fechados no seu próprio círculo. A dimensão " humana " das estátuas é aceite pelo espectador " sem reservas " , apesar de não terem " pés " , de estarem de " pés enterrados " no espaço da instalação, da sua estatura ser abaixo da estatura de um adulto. Os rostos são sorridentes e levam-nos também a sorrir, a devolver-lhes o sorriso! A imediata sensação física de bem-estar que provocam também nos colhe de surpresa e conduz a uma estranheza, que não se consegue fazer desaparecer: a semelhança daquelas figuras com outras; os soldados de terracota chineses.

En el canon de la literatura armenia predominan los nombres masculinos y, tradicionalmente, las obras de las escritoras mujeres han sido totalmente ignoradas. Tan dramática es la cuestión de la invisibilidad de las mujeres que se han... more

En el canon de la literatura armenia predominan los nombres masculinos y, tradicionalmente, las obras de las escritoras mujeres han sido totalmente ignoradas. Tan dramática es la cuestión de la invisibilidad de las mujeres que se han dedicado a la escritura en Armenia que, cuando se pregunta sobre la existencia de autoras armenias a ciudadanos y ciudadanas del país, son muy pocos los que pueden mencionar algunos nombres. En los programas de filología armenia no aparecen las mujeres escritoras armenias así como tampoco se recomienda la lectura de sus obras por el hecho de no considerarse “buena literatura”. Dado que no tienen un espacio en la literatura nacional, el objetivo de este trabajo es vindicar y reavivar la figura de una de las autoras más prolíficas: Zabel Yessayan. De entre todas las autoras armenias, Yessayan merece particular atención no sólo por el hecho de ser una de las primeras escritoras mujeres sino también porque ella tomó una parte activa en la construcción de su “patria”. De ahí que la haya elegido para este trabajo, que se plantea como fase inicial de un estudio más amplio sobre autoras armenias. Sin embargo, aunque Yessayan fue una luchadora y tuvo una vida literaria fecunda, su poderosa voz es una de las silenciadas voces literarias, tanto de manera literal como metafórica. En consecuencia, este trabajo de investigación es un estudio de la figura y la obra de esta autora singular que parece necesario. El estudio se vehicula mediante tres temas clave que articulan la figura y la obra de Yessayan y las dotan de sentido, y que pueden facilitar su comprensión desde Armenia pero también desde contextos distintos, como el nuestro. Estos conceptos son los de censura, otredad, y feminismo.

The paper deals with the image of the Phrygians as presented by the ancient authors and points to its two main traits in the classical literature: the Phrygians’ cowardice and ‘natural inclination’ towards servile status. The author of... more

The paper deals with the image of the Phrygians as presented by the ancient authors and points to its two main traits in the classical literature: the Phrygians’ cowardice and ‘natural inclination’ towards servile status. The author of the article suggests that both characteristics can be found mostly in certain genres of literature (i.e. drama, poetry and orations) and are closely connected to the tradition that identifies Phrygians with Trojans. The inherent duality of the discussed image is also examined, as well as the similarities and differences in ancient perception of the Phrygians and other peoples of Asia Minor.

English: The article tries to analyze gamers as a social group in Poland. That group has been stigmatized and partly excluded, which led to it's withdrawal to privacy and lack of presence in public. Author attempts to analyze the change... more

By offering fluent, accurate translations of extracts and fragments from a wide assortment of ancient texts, this volume allows a comprehensive overview of ancient Greek and Roman concepts of "otherness", as well as Greek and Roman... more

By offering fluent, accurate translations of extracts and fragments from a wide assortment of ancient texts, this volume allows a comprehensive overview of ancient Greek and Roman concepts of "otherness", as well as Greek and Roman views of non-Greeks and non-Romans. A general introduction, thorough annotation, maps, a select bibliography, and an index are also included.

There has been increasing criticism of mainstream writers who create characters from marginalised cultural backgrounds different to their own, especially when those characters are written from the first-person perspective. This can be... more

There has been increasing criticism of mainstream writers who create characters from marginalised cultural backgrounds different to their own, especially when those characters are written from the first-person perspective. This can be seen as a kind of ventriloquism (Couser 1998), stereotypical and racist characterisation (Leane 2016), and lead to further oppression since the privileged person is the one who speaks rather than the group represented (Alcoff 1991). At the same time, writing that explores the migration story of people from refugee backgrounds, written by writers from those backgrounds as well as writers who have not had those experiences, has become increasingly more common (see Menchu 1984; Nazer & Lewis 2003; Eggers 2006;
Cleave 2008; de Kretser 2012; Al Muderis & Weaver 2014). But there is little work on the difference between stories that have been constructed with consultation of the people represented and those that have not. A look into how novels of this kind are written can contribute to the debate of writing the other. In order to explore this concept, I wrote a novel manuscript about the everyday lives of four characters from refugee backgrounds in three drafts. The first was produced through fieldwork and observation, the second after interviews and the third through feedback. This paper compares the first two drafts of the manuscript. It suggests that prior to interviews and self-reflection, the writing followed the dominant narrative told about refugees, referred to here as ‘the national story’ (Birch 2013), which played up victimhood and played down racism. Interviews and reflection on instances of cultural misappropriation produced a story that began to counter to this narrative. This suggests that when the people represented are not involved in the writing process, the national story dramatically influences the ways in which the characters are written.

The reconquest of Oran by Spanish Army, ordered by Philip V in 1732, was essential in the articulation of its image of power. The aim of this research is to reconstruct, with a diachronic approach, the (anti)Islamic imagery of the Spanish... more

The reconquest of Oran by Spanish Army, ordered by Philip V in 1732, was essential in the articulation of its image of power. The aim of this research is to reconstruct, with a diachronic approach, the (anti)Islamic imagery of the Spanish campaigns in Algeria during the Early Modern period, and the making of the new The conquest of Oran’s image.

As an “icon” in mainstream popular culture, Lady Gaga has imbued a new standard of super stardom as a performance artist and transformative fashionista in today’s generation and thus challenged orthodoxy. Her interpretation and expression... more

As an “icon” in mainstream popular culture, Lady Gaga has imbued a new standard of super stardom as a performance artist and transformative fashionista in today’s generation and thus challenged orthodoxy. Her interpretation and expression of Christianity, in particular, places the iconic goddess under the critical spotlight of the religious community. Born a Roman Catholic, Lady Gaga experienced a series of life-changing events that has brought her to integrate risky biblical references into her lyrics. Her music is only one perspective, however, upon which this can be analyzed: her fashion, often unpredictable yet impressive, is equally influenced by her religious roots and ideas. The art of Lady Gaga’s music and fashion brings together new meaning both insightful and controversial to the Christian body, which elicits a response to examine and criticize the superstar’s interpretive messages. As a result, subjective interpretations of those references lie at the heart of Christian argument as well as Lady Gaga’s.

NW Italy (500 - 1 BCE) provides an interesting case scenario to explore methodological problems regarding issues of identity and ethnicity. In an area with many long-distance contacts across the Apennines, Alps, and along the Po Valley,... more

NW Italy (500 - 1 BCE) provides an interesting case scenario to explore methodological problems regarding issues of identity and ethnicity. In an area with many long-distance contacts across the Apennines, Alps, and along the Po Valley, the question arises how the various forms of cultural interaction were shaping people’s sense of identity. One major concern is, of course, the nature of our evidence. To what extent do pottery types, imported luxury products, funerary rituals, coinage, writing, language, and religion really inform us about issues of ethnicity? Artefact assemblages, for example, seem to change constantly and significant changes that indicate new developments regarding self-identity need to be identified. The second problem concerns the role of external factors in this process. What impact did the Celtic ‘invasion’ – allegedly in 396 or 388 BC – and subsequent Roman domination really have on people’s identity? Another issue concerns the development and nature of these identities: was there ever anything like a ‘Ligurian’ or ‘Celtic’ identity in Cisalpine Gaul? In this context, the term ‘Celtic’ is a convenient shorthand to describe people who wrote and spoke a Celtic language and used artefacts and practices of Transalpine origin. We also have to explore the heterogeneous and geographically diverse character of local ethnicities and the way how these identities evolved when
"ethne" became Roman-style municipalities
Otherness, state formation and ethnogenesis - How did these constantly re-negotiated local identities develop in an increasingly pan-Italian world? With increasing interaction across Italy we would perhaps expect to find a more ‘global’ Italo-Hellenic identity in the post-conquest period. Instead our evidence suggests a much stronger local identity, especially aspects that reflect a certain ‘Celticity’ in writing, coinage, and material culture, as well as the continuous use of rituals and artefacts that go back to the early Iron Age period. Roman presence per se did not result in people ‘imitating’ or ‘emulating’ the conqueror’s culture, but their integration in Roman political and military structures and their involvement beyond their local sphere of influence seems to create the wish to demarcate themselves by a stronger identity.

Localizamos no convite feito por Freud um termo-chave que nos serve muito bem para se pensar a tensão dos limites entre o sujeito e a sociedade. Se vê prescrito nesta formulação freudiana o elemento que convida a psicanálise a encarar os... more

Localizamos no convite feito por Freud um termo-chave que nos serve muito bem para se pensar a tensão dos limites entre o sujeito e a sociedade. Se vê prescrito nesta formulação freudiana o elemento que convida a psicanálise a encarar os mortos-vivos, não apenas enquanto um folclore cultural, mas também enquanto uma reminiscência anímica integrada simbolicamente na realidade e que, designa por meio deste uma figura do sofrimento humano extremamente cabível à atualidade. Falamos aqui da investigação necessária acerca da narrativa do terror e das metástases do horror, hoje tão cruciais na compreensão da gramática do sofrimento enfrentado na contemporaneidade. E não por menos, a figura que por um lado encarna com excelência elementos psicossociológicos, que dispõe em seu aspecto mítico a retomada da imagem daqueles que atravessaram o Acheronte e que encontraram um caminho de volta, conta por outro com o imaginário já da crença haitiana de que o escravo quando morto, poderia ser ressuscitado para trabalhar com escravo-zumbi para sempre. Desta maneira, o convite aqui é justamente, o de dar dignidade ou promover outro lugar para os “mortos-vivos” que imperam hoje em na nossa cultura.

Through the vehicle of Nicolas Sarkozy’s so-called “Dakar Address,” we will analyze the West’s persisting lack of insight into the need for Western decolonization. We will attempt to identify the dangers that come from this refusal, such... more

Through the vehicle of Nicolas Sarkozy’s so-called “Dakar Address,” we will analyze the West’s persisting lack of insight into the need for Western decolonization. We will attempt to identify the dangers that come from this refusal, such as the continued adherence to colonial patterns, the enduring self-understanding as being superior compared to Africa, and the persisting unwillingness to accept colonial guilt. Decolonization must be understood as a two-fold business. Decolonization means overcoming endured and perpetrated violence. It is not only important that the colonially oppressed regain strength, it is equally important that the perpetrators of colonial violence understand their excess of violence and work on rendering its return impossible. We explain how Western thinking remains dangerous and untrustworthy if it rejects its own decolonization. Finally, we will draw attention to a fundamental pattern of Western thought that clashes with the fundamental values of the West: contempt. In a final step, we suggest how this contempt can be overcome through desuperiorization and the establishment of elative ethics.

Félix González Torres’s work is understood as a queer affective site of togetherness and loss, a questioning of the institution and the object, a gift-giving and transubstantive experience. It is a political interrogation of complicity... more

Félix González Torres’s work is understood as a queer affective site of togetherness and loss, a questioning of the institution and the object, a gift-giving and transubstantive experience. It is a political interrogation of complicity and otherness in HIV/AIDS America by making present ourselves in the absence of the artist or his lover, in re-imagining how we might come together. Re-imagining the way that material and the multiplicities of relations affect the work, I will trouble the acts of witnessing and participation as political endeavors in this queer imaginary. By examining González Torres’s oeuvre, especially Passages, in relation to other work such as the various untitled paperstacks, candyspills, and museum “biographies,” it will be seen that there is a liminal path of political and aesthetic intimacy moved between as part of a utopian journey both in space and time. This is underlined by material interactions and the relations of experiencers, in its spatio-political context. There is a relational (after, but also in response to critic Nicolas Bourriaud’s formulation) nature of those in the art space, and by extension a relational nature in the lived (political) sphere. Loaded with failure Passages: Untitled (Chemo) becomes multiple embodied experiences where many people’s ripples might come together and can be recognized and by material in this (queer) affective and phenomenal transitional space. The very foundations of Otherness are questioned through the marking of many, where our relations our troubled to trouble and even disidentify the dominant assignments that oppression is born out of. The beads’ motion becomes parallax with our selfhood and through it the distinction between individuals is blurred. It is attempting collective utopia; it is attempting personal marriage; it is the erotic in the museum ecology through the forbiddingly haptic. It is the liminal journey-marker, its spatiotemporal relationality a plane between the politics of intimacy and the intimacy of politics.

In this chapter, I argue – using a number of examples from representations of non-human animals – that there are close connections between the exotic otherness of animals in Occidental representations and the othering of some human... more

In this chapter, I argue – using a number of examples from representations of non-human animals – that there are close connections between the exotic otherness of animals in Occidental representations and the othering of some human groups. Therefore, discourse on imperialism, colonialism and postcolonialism provides a framework within which the connections between human and non-human otherness may be explored.
Moreover, I argue that there is a need for discussing new ways of representing non-human animals in order to avoid traditional othering and stereotypes. Some authors, such as J.M. Coetzee and Barbara Gowdy, have tried to grapple issues of animal alterity in their fiction and have benefitted from their postcolonial context in doing so. Yet both the traditional stereotypes of animal otherness and contemporary attempts at dispensing with these raise questions and dilemmas when it comes to representing non-human animals.