Minor Universality / Universalité Mineure
Minor Universality / Universalité Mineure

Author: Markus Messling

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-08-21

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 3110798492

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The circulation and entanglements of human beings, data, and goods have not necessarily and by themselves generated a universalising consciousness. The "global" and the "universal", in other words, are not the same. The idea of a world-society remains highly contested. Our times are marked by the fragmentation of a double relativistic character: the inevitable critique of Western universalism on the one hand, and resurgent identitarian and neo-nationalistic claims to identity on the other. Sources of an argumentation for a strong universalism brought forward by Western traditions such as Christianity, Marxism, and Liberalism have largely lost their legitimation. All the while, manifold and situated narratives of a common world that re-address the universal are under way of being produced and gain significance. This volume tracks the development and relevance of such cultural and social practices that posit forms of what we call minor universality. It asks: Where and how do contemporary practices open up concrete settings so as to create experiences, reflections and agencies of a shared humanity? With contributions by Isaac Bazié, Anil Bhatti, Jean-Luc Chappey, Elsie Cohen, Leyla Dakhli, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Nicole Fischer, Albert Gouaffo, Stefan Helgesson, Fatma Hotait, Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, Christopher M. Hutton, Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Mario Laarmann, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Olivier Remaud, Gisèle Sapiro, Bénédicte Savoy, Maria-Anna Schiffers, Laurens Schlicht, Sergio Ugalde, Hélène Thierard, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll.

Literature and the Work of Universality
Literature and the Work of Universality

Author: Alice Duhan

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-07-22

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 3111209156

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In an age of accelerating ecological crises, global inequalities and democratic fragility, it has become crucial to achieve renewed articulations of human commonality. With anchorage in critical theory as well as world literary studies, this volume approaches literature - and modes of literary thinking - as a key resource for such a task. "Universality" is understood here not as an established "universalism", but as a horizon towards which intellectual inquiry and literary practices orient themselves. In the field of world literature, there is by now a wide repertoire of epistemological resources through which claims to universality can be both questioned and reconfigured. If, at one end of the spectrum, world literature confronts us with the spectre of homogenisation and the commodification of difference under a regime of global capitalism, at another end renewed forms of philological, anthropological and ecological attentiveness to the particulars of languages and texts within the crucible of connected histories allow for defamiliarising perspectives both on received historical narratives and aesthetic practices. Vernacularity emerges here as a central point of reference for constructing the universal from within the particular, the idiomatic, and the experiences of social subordination or complicity.

Universality After Universalism
Universality After Universalism

Author: Markus Messling

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-10-23

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 311112830X

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The idea of universalism inherited from the French Revolution has been strongly discredited by its colonial history; today, it is also the target of nationalist attacks. What remains of it? Now available in English, Markus Messling's critically acclaimed study shows how contemporary Francophone literatures seek, after European universalism, approaches to a new universality, without which knowledge and justice cannot be organised in world society. With a foreword by Souleymane Bachir Diagne

Kafka and the Universal
Kafka and the Universal

Author: Arthur Cools

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2016-07-25

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 3110457431

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Kafka’s work has been attributed a universal significance and is often regarded as the ultimate witness of the human condition in the twentieth century. Yet his work is also considered paradigmatic for the expression of the singular that cannot be subsumed under any generalization. This paradox engenders questions not only concerning the meaning of the universal as it manifests itself in (and is transformed by) Kafka’s writings but also about the expression of the singular in literary fiction as it challenges the opposition between the universal and the singular. The contributions in this volume approach these questions from a variety of perspectives. They are structured according to the following issues: ambiguity as a tool of deconstructing the pre-established philosophical meanings of the universal; the concept of the law as a major symbol for the universal meaning of Kafka’s writings; the presence of animals in Kafka’s texts; the modernist mode of writing as challenge of philosophical concepts of the universal; and the meaning and relevance of the universal in contemporary Kafka reception. This volume examines central aspects of the interplay between philosophy and literature.

Universalism(e) & ...
Universalism(e) & ...

Author: Elsie Cohen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-09-23

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 3111373169

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This book confronts the history and legitimacy of Western Universalism. In the form of conversations, it documents thinking-in-process about how new forms of universality after hegemonic universalism can be thought and practised. Bringing into play their practices and theories, the interlocutors of Universalism(e) & ... lay their own traces of a minor universality, situated in the troubling present of our times. Ce livre s'attaque à l'histoire et à la légitimité de l'universalisme occidental. Sous la forme de conversations, il documente la réflexion en cours sur les façons de penser et de pratiquer de nouvelles formes d'universalité après l'universalisme hégémonique. À partir de leurs pratiques et de leurs théories, les interlocuteurs d'Universalism(e) & ... font apparaître leur propre cheminement autour de cette universalité mineure située dans le présent troublant de notre époque. Universalism(e) & ... révolution, histoires concrètes, préhistoire, multiláteralisme, savoir(s), the partisan position, narration, reparation Entretiens avec / Conversations with: Arjun Appadurai, Leyla Dakhli, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Giovanni Levi, Gisèle Sapiro, David Scott, Adania Shibli, Maria Stavrinaki

The International Law of Responsibility for Economic Crimes
The International Law of Responsibility for Economic Crimes

Author: Ndiva Kofele-Kale

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-03

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 1317027221

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Focusing on the problem of indigenous spoliation in developing countries, this work explores the controversial issue of spoliation by national officials of the wealth of the states of which they are custodians. Due to constraints of the state system and the lack of appropriate substantive municipal law, efforts to punish those responsible for the economic rape of entire nations and to recover spoliated funds have been frustrated and rendered insubstantial. Taking a multidisciplinary approach and on the basis of data generated from empirical, cross-national research, this study makes the case for indigenous spoliation as a violation of international law. Substantially revised and updated to take account of recent legal and political developments, the second edition will be a valuable resource for academics, practitioners, NGOs, and policymakers.

Weaving New Perspectives Together
Weaving New Perspectives Together

Author: María Alonso Alonso

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2012-04-25

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1443839418

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The present volume seeks to offer a novel and interdisciplinary overview of the question of literary interpretation and the numerous perspectives current in the field today. Written by early-career researchers and enriched with the important contributions of three senior lecturers, the articles contained in this compilation are devised to work as a multi-faceted whole that may at the same time give inspiration to students and constitute a guide to more experienced scholars. Acting as an integrating entity that agglutinates works from scholars across Europe, the editors consider this book to be a clear example of the dynamism of present-day literary studies and of the numerous ways in which literature can speak to people. Following Margaret Atwood’s statement, “The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose”, this volume may be said to possess the potential to provide as many answers as it poses new questions which will stimulate future research in the field.

The Epoch of Universalism 1769–1989 / L’époque de l’universalisme 1769–1989
The Epoch of Universalism 1769–1989 / L’époque de l’universalisme 1769–1989

Author: Franck Hofmann

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-11-23

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 3110691507

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2019 witnessed the 30th anniversary of the German reunification. But the remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall coincided with another event of global importance that caught much less attention: the 250th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s birth. There is an undeniable historical and philosophical dimension to this coincidence. Napoleon’s appearance on the scene of world history seems to embody European universalism (soon thereafter in the form of a ‘modern’ imperial project); whilst scholars such as Francis Fukuyama saw in the events of 1989 its historical fulfilment. Today, we see more clearly that the fall of the Berlin Wall stands for an epistemic earthquake, which generated a world that can no longer be grasped through universal concepts. Here, we deal with the idea of Europe and of its relation to the world itself. Picking up on this contingency of world history with an ironic wink, the volume analyses in retrospect the epoch of European universalism. It focusses on its dialectics, polemically addressing and remembering both 1769 and 1989. L’année 2019 a été marquée par le 30e anniversaire de la réunification de l’Allemagne, éclipsant un autre événement d’envergure mondiale : le 250e anniversaire de Napoléon Bonaparte. La dimension philosophico-historique de cette coïncidence ne peut pourtant pas être négligée : si l’arrivée de Bonaparte sur la scène de l’histoire mondiale semble incarner l’avènement de l’universalisme européen (bientôt amené à prendre sa forme « moderne » et impériale), certains penseurs ont suggéré, avec Francis Fukuyama, que « 1989 » marquait son accomplissement historique. Aujourd’hui, il apparaît au contraire que la chute du mur de Berlin a été un véritable tremblement de terre épistémique, et rendu inopérants les concepts universels. Dans le monde d’après, c’est à l’idée d’Europe et à sa relation au monde que nous avons affaire. Revenant par un geste ironique sur cette contingence historique, le présent volume se veut une analyse rétrospective de l’époque de l’universalisme, dans toute la dialectique que les commémorations de 1769/1989 ont fait surgir.

Touch
Touch

Author: Adania Shibli

Publisher: Interlink Publishing

Published: 2013-11-10

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1623710456

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Touch centers on a girl, the youngest of nine sisters in a Palestinian family. In the singular world of this novella, this young woman’s everyday experiences resonate until they have become as weighty as any national tragedy. The smallest sensations compel, the events of history only lurk at the edges--the question of Palestine, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila. In a language that feels at once natural and alienated, Shibli breaks with the traditions of modern Arabic fiction, creating a work that has been and will continue to be hailed across literatures. Here every ordinary word, ordinary action is a small stone dropped into water: of inevitable consequence. We find ourselves mesmerized one quiet ripple at a time.