On Thursday\, November 12 at 10 am PDT\, < a href="https://cenes.ubc.ca/profile/markus-hallensleben/">Dr. Markus Halle nsleben will be giving a talk on "Deconstructing Eurocentric Politics o f Belonging through Literary and Visual Narratives of Plural Relations."
Please RSVP for this virtual event on the UBC Migration website: https://migration.ubc.ca/events/markus-hallensle ben-deconstructing-eurocentric-politics-belonging
Abstrac t:
My talk will discuss literary and visual narratives of pl urality that suggest a relational\, intersectional way of connecting cultur es. These narratives are often directed against hegemonial discourses of be longing and can be seen as counter narratives to Eurocentrism\, colonialism \, sedentarism and patriarchalism. They can\, nevertheless\, be place based and vernacular\, and at the same time promote cosmopolitanism and super-di versity. Whether they are earth based\, as in the installations and perform ances of Otobong Nkanga\, or bodily centred\, as in the writings of Billy-R ay Belcourt\, they make us aware of the problematic and violent politics of seeing the land and the people as resources\, rather than listening to the ir voices as necessarily corrective sources for a societal change. Similarl y\, new narratives of a postmigrant society and “Radical Diversity” (Max Cz ollek) have emerged in German-language texts and films that deconstruct a E urocentric politics of belonging. By building plural relations between reli gions and cultures\, they give refugees and immigrants agency and openly cr iticize socio-political concepts of integration that are built on the princ iple of a dominant and “guiding culture”. I will analyse these narratives u nder the assumption that cultural identities are constructed performatively and that cultures have to be seen dynamic and confluent. However\, being m yself entangled as an uninvited guest and settler here in Vancouver\, my go al is not to compare similar political activisms coming from different cult ural backgrounds\, I rather look for queer narratives of self-governing\, s elf-determination and self-precarity. Finally\, I will ask how we can\, wit h the words of Chantal Mouffe\, “transform an antagonism into an agonism” ( Hegemony\, Radical Democracy\, and the Political\, 2013) and aim for a scho larly activism that won’t reiterate Eurocentrism within and outside Europe.
UBC Migration is hosting a series of talks throughout the month of N ovember. A full list of events can be found on their website: https://migration.ubc.ca/events
Featured image: "In Pursu it of Bling - The Transformation" Tapestry by artist Otobong Nkanga