scholarly journals Letter to a Dead Playwright: Daily Grind, Vicki Reynolds, and Archive Fever

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-132
Author(s):  
Glenn D'Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Spectral Structure ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
Live Performance ◽  
Colonial Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Form Part ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come

’Nothing is less reliable, nothing is less clear today than the word “archive”,’ observed Jacques Derrida in his book Archive Fever: a Freudian Impression (1996). This paper reflects on the unsettling process of establishing (or commencing) an archive for the Melbourne Workers Theatre, to form part of the AusStage digital archive which records information on live performance in Australia. Glenn D'Cruz's paper juxtaposes two disparate but connected registers of writing: an open letter to a deceased Australian playwright, Vicki Reynolds, and a critical reflection on the politics of the archive with reference to Derrida's account of archive fever, which he characterizes as an ‘irrepressible desire to return to the origin, a homesickness, a nostalgia for the return to the most archaic place of absolute commencement’. Using Derrida's commentary on questions of memory, authority, inscription, hauntology, and heritage to identify some of the philosophical and ethical aporias he encountered while working on the project, D’Cruz pays particular attention to what Derrida calls the spectral structure of the archive, and stages a conversation with the ghosts that haunt the digitized Melbourne Workers Theatre documents. He also unpacks the logic of Derrida's so-called messianic account of the archive, which ‘opens out of the future’, thereby affirming the future-to-come, and unsettling the normative notion of the archive as a repository for what has passed. Glenn D’Cruz teaches at Deakin University, Australia. He is the author of Midnight's Orphans: Anglo-Indians in Post/Colonial Literature (Peter Lang, 2006) and editor of Class Act: Melbourne Workers Theatre 1987–2007 (Vulgar Press, 2007).

scholarly journals Now: A Post-Romantic Countertextuality of the Contemporary

CounterText ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Corby
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Ethical Position ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Contemporary Situation ◽  
To Come ◽  
Ethical Stance

In this essay James Corby questions the dominant future-oriented nature of the ethical turn of theory and philosophy in the final decades of the twentieth century and its aesthetic influence. Focusing in particular upon the ethical position of Jacques Derrida, Corby argues that the desire to avoid the closure of the contemporary and to preserve the possibility of difference by cultivating a radical attentiveness to that which is ‘to come’ often risks a too complete disengagement from the present, leading to an empty and ineffectual ethical stance that actually preserves the contemporary situation that it seeks to open up. Corby makes a case for this theoretical investment in the possibility of a non-contemporary (typically futural) rupture as being understood as forming part of a far-reaching romantic tradition. In opposition to this tradition he sketches a post-romantic alternative that would understand difference as an immanent, rather than imminent, matter. He argues that this should be considered congruent with a countertextual impulse oriented not towards a revelatory futurity, but, rather, towards the possible displacements, dislocations, and transformations already inherent in the contemporary. The final part of the essay develops this idea, positioning countertextuality as the articulation of alternative contemporaries. In this regard, the literature of the future is not ‘to come’, it is already here. The challenge is to recognise it as such, and this means being prepared to modify and change the conceptual apparatus that guides us in our thinking of literature and the arts.

The Messianic: Waiting for the Future

2020 ◽  
pp. 156-180
Author(s):  
Jacques Derrida
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Universal Structure ◽  
To Come

This chapter evaluates the messianic tone that deconstruction has recently adopted, which is the turn it takes toward the future. The messianic future which deconstruction dreams is the unforeseeable future to come, absolutely to come, the justice, the democracy, the gift, and the hospitality to come. Jacques Derrida at first avoided the notion of the messianic on the grounds that it entailed the idea of a “horizon of possibility” for the future and, hence, of some sort of anticipatory encircling of what is to come. But after this initial hesitation, Derrida adopted the term “messianic.” Deconstruction is not the destruction of religion but its reinvention. It helps religion examine its conscience, counseling and chastening religion about its tendency to confuse its faith with knowledge, which results in the dangerous and absolutizing triumphalism of religion. Derrida also distinguishes the “messianic” as a universal structure from the various “messianisms,” which are a little too strong.

The Thinker of the Future – Introduction to The Violence of the Masquerade: Law Dressed Up as Justice

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drucilla Cornell
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Pure Reason ◽  
Valid Knowledge ◽  
The Future ◽  
Systematic Structure ◽  
To Come

There has perhaps been no greater thinker of the future than Jacques Derrida. Throughout his entire body of work Derrida constantly returns to the thinking of the “perhaps,” of the arrizant. This thinking of the “perhaps” takes shape as what is “new” and other to our world, something that is therefore unknowable even as a horizon of ideality that both arises out of and points to what ought to be in any given world. I renamed deconstruction the philosophy of the limit so as to emphasize Derrida as the protector of what is still yet to come. My argument was fundamentally that Derrida radicalized the notion of the Kantian meaning of “laying the ground” as the boundaries for the constitution of a sphere of valid knowledge, or determinant judgment. In Kant, to criticize aims to delimit what is decisive to the proper essence of a sphere of knowledge, say for example science. The “laying of limits” is not primarily a demarcation against a sphere of knowledge, but a delimiting in the sense of an exhibition of the inner construction of pure reason. The lifting out of the elements of reason involves a critique in the sense that it both sketches out the faculty of pure reason and surveys the project as the whole of its larger architectonic or systematic structure.

scholarly journals White Blotches on Brown Skin: A Post-colonial Critique of "The Writing on My Forehead"

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (I) ◽  
pp. 164-186
Keyword(s):  
Western Culture ◽  
Colonial Literature ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Time ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Impact

The formal colonial rule of Britain ended seven decades ago but the experience deeply influenced the minds of the masses and altered their lives and psyche for a long time to come. Post-colonial issues such as loss of identity, hybridity, otherness, appropriation, etc are frequently highlighted by the Anglophone writers of the sub-continent. The authors of Pakistani descent have contributed remarkably to post-colonial literature. The present research aims to analyze Nafisa Haji’s novel The Writing on My Forehead (2009) to investigate the Western influence on the minds and behaviors of the people of the subcontinent. Homi K. Bhabha's analytical lens (1994) is the primary guide for this research. Three elements of hybridity, namely mimicry, ambivalence, and unhomeliness, as proposed by Bhabha are explored. The concepts of diaspora and othering in the work under discussion are also briefly touched. This research is qualitative and descriptive in nature. The results of the detailed textual analysis indicate that various characters are hybrids of East and West. The phenomena of ambivalence and mimicry can be clearly observed in their conduct and thinking. The most important characters in this regard are Saira, Adeeba (also known as Big Nanima), and Kasim who openly mimic the Western culture. Minor characters like Adeeba’s parents and Shabana, though averse to Western culture at the surface level, are unconsciously influenced by it. The phenomena of othering, diaspora, and unhomeliness are also briefly touched. In this way, the present study sheds light on the impact of colonialism on the lives of colonial subjects and links it with the continued hegemony of the West over the Easterners. It will be helpful for students, teachers and researchers who wish to study Haji’s fiction and the impact of the phenomenon of colonialism.

scholarly journals The relation between nostalgia and vitalism in 'Afscheid van Congo: met Jef Geeraerts terug naar de evenaar' by Erwin Mortier

Afrika Focus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Bolle
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Colonial Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Future

This essay elaborates on my presentation on nostalgia and postcolonial literature, as presented at the 8th symposium of the Ghent Africa Platform held in autumn 2014. During this presentation I made a short analysis of how Svetlana Boym’s ideas on nostalgia, as expressed in her book Nostalgia for the Future, can be used to analyse Erwin Mortier’s memories of traveling, as noted in his book Afscheid van Congo: met Jef Geeraerts terug naar de evenaar (Goodbye to Congo: back to the equator with Jef Geeraerts). During my presentation I also introduced the relation between nostalgia and (aesthetic) vitalism. In this paper I will elaborate on the relation between nostalgia and vitalism as a phenomenon within (post)colonial literature. Key words: Svetlana Boym, Erwin Mortier, Jef Geeraerts, vitalism, nostalgia 

scholarly journals Evolution and Identity of the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese: Issues and Challenges

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mohd Shahrul Imran ◽  
Lim Abdullah ◽  
Reevany Bustami
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
The Real ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Future ◽  
Unique Identity ◽  
To Come ◽  
Close Contacts

The Kelantan Peranakan Chinese (KPC) has become the earliest evidence of China relationship with the Malay World. The fifty or so Peranakan settlements in Kelantan were believed to have been founded sometime before the 1800s starting from Tumpat to Gua Musang and along Sungai Kelantan. The descendants of those early Chinese settlers married local women and had close contacts with the Malays and Thais who formed the majority of the populace. This eventually led to the acculturation of the Chinese and gave rise to the formation of the Peranakan community. He is ethnically Chinese but his Kelantanese dialect is so homey that he could easily pass off as Malay. The Chinese perceived the local Malays as legitimately dominant and themselves as legitimately subordinate. This understanding and acceptance of the legitimacy of their relative positions is very crucial in the promotion of a successful inter-ethnic interaction. Today, the days of the Peranakan are numbered and the size of their community is rapidly declining. Modernisation, migration and marriage with non-Peranakans are among the main reasons for the decline. But perhaps the most significant factor is the need to re-orient their identities to suit the post-colonial racial landscape with its ethnic demarcations of Malay, Chinese, Indian and others categories. Peranakan children no longer mix with their Malay or Thai neighbours, preferring instead the society of their schoolmates or those of similar ethnicity. It is just a matter of time before the community disappears. The objectives of  the research is to indicate present and future transformations of the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese  in the rapidly changing and the future of a small group of Kelantanese Chinese, whose forefathers landed in this country more than 250 years ago - much longer than many current crop of so-called Malaysians. Through the process of assimilation, they have lost their identity. They are not Malays; and naturally would not be accepted as bumiputras. Since they don't speak Mandarin, Hakka or Cantonese, they feel out of place among the "real" or more "genuine" Chinese. Compounded by their tanned skin, they look every inch like the Malays. Though their Chinese surnames are maintained, many have taken the Malay names or are being called by the Malay names. But this unfortunate group of people will perish in history in 30 - 40 years to come. They may be a minority in Kelantan but the Peranakan are as colourful as they come. However, this community is in danger of losing its unique identity. After they are, the Kelantan Peranakan Chinese will go down in history. The whole wide gone world would not even know of their existence}.

scholarly journals Untimely Meditation: Nietzsche et cetera

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 631
Author(s):  
Arno Böhler
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Eternal Return ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
To Come ◽  
Mode Of Being

The following lecture performance was a part of the research festival Philosophy On Stage#4 at Tanzquartier Wien, where new relations between philosophy and the arts were tested and put into practice. The lecture starts with the claim that philosophical thinking necessarily performs the temporality of the untimely as a mode of being-in-time, which realises a revolt of time against its times in favour of a time to come. Being neither part of the past nor of eternity, the temporality of the untimely calls future events into being.Insofar as philosophy shares the temporality of the untimely with the arts, the lecture-performance defines arts-based philosophy––the alliance of art and philosophy, by which philosophy has started to implement artistic practices into philosophy––as a field for the appearance of the untimely. As Jacques Derrida has shown in Politics of Friendship, the proposition “Alas! if only you knew how soon, how very soon, things will be – different! –”, characterises precisely the aporetic principle of a democracy of the future, grounded in the temporality of the untimely. The genitive ‘of’ thereby indicates a mode of democracy which does only exist as long as it keeps itself open towards its own changeability and eventfulness. Therefore it necessarily takes place as the prelude of a future one is able to affirm full heartedly in advance, that is to say, over and over again. A mode of being-in-time that touches the secret of Nietzsche’s most abysmal thought: the thought of the eternal return of the same, in which somebody has realized the never ending eternity loops of be-coming; a life of immanence; a recurring movement of eternity within itself.

scholarly journals The relation between nostalgia and vitalism in ‘Afscheid van Congo: met Jef Geeraerts terug naar de evenaar’ by Erwin Mortier

Afrika Focus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-108
Author(s):  
Clara Bolle
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Colonial Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Future

This essay elaborates on my presentation on nostalgia and postcolonial literature, as presented at the 8th symposium of the Ghent Africa Platform held in autumn 2014. During this presentation I made a short analysis of how Svetlana Boym’s ideas on nostalgia, as expressed in her book Nostalgia for the Future, can be used to analyse Erwin Mortier’s memories of traveling, as noted in his book Afscheid van Congo: met Jef Geeraerts terug naar de evenaar (Goodbye to Congo: back to the equator with Jef Geeraerts). During my presentation I also introduced the relation between nostalgia and (aesthetic) vitalism. In this paper I will elaborate on the relation between nostalgia and vitalism as a phenomenon within (post)colonial literature.

On Being Haunted by the Future

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-201
Author(s):  
David Wood
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Real World ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Future ◽  
Universal Structure ◽  
To Come ◽  
Taking Responsibility

This chapter discusses the future as another site of contestation. Jacques Derrida insists that people understand the “to-come” not as a real future “down the road” but rather as a universal structure of immanence. However, such a structure is no substitute for the hard work of taking responsibility for what are often entirely predictable and preventable disasters. It is important to steer clear of the utopian black hole, the thought—or shape of desire—that the future would need to bring a future perfection or completion. To avoid the trap set by such a shape of desire, it is not necessary—indeed is necessary not—to reduce the future to a universal structure of immanence. What is equally disturbing is not people's inability to expect the unexpected but the failure of the institutions to prevent the all-too-predictable. Too many of the institutions have conditions of sustainability that are unhealthily insulated from the real world, or indeed coconspirators in the fantasy that people can go on like this.

scholarly journals 'Democracy is coming to the RSA': On democracy, theology, and futural historicity

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert R. Vosloo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
South African ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
The Future ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
To Come

This article brings the concept of democracy � as an open-ended tradition � in conversation with notions dealing with historicity and the future, such as �democracy to come�, �promise�, and �a democratic vision�. It is argued that although these notions are rightfully associated with the future, they also imply that democracy should not be disconnected from an emphasis on an inheritance from the past. With this emphasis in mind, the first part of the article attends to the French philosopher Jacques Derrida�s intriguing term, �democracy to come�, whereas the second part of the article takes a closer look at some aspects of the work of the South African theologian John de Gruchy on democracy, with special reference to his distinction between a democratic system and a democratic vision. The third, and final, part of the article brings some of the insights taken from the engagement with Derrida and De Gruchy into conversation with the continuing challenges facing theological discourse on democracy in South Africa today.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: A constructive proposal is made that emphasises the futural openness of democracy in a way that challenges a vague utopianism.Keywords: Democracy; Derrida; De Gruchy; future; historicity

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