‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’
This essay addresses problems of how and what we know in an attempt to distinguish what’s inside from what’s outside and to figure out whether acts of knowing can be plotted on either side of any boundary that might claim to separate inside from outside. Moving beyond the familiar dialectics derived...
Published in: | History and Theory |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/thinking-on-location(9a9389d3-483c-4387-a9b6-b373c898af07).html https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 |
id |
ftcopenhagenunip:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/9a9389d3-483c-4387-a9b6-b373c898af07 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcopenhagenunip:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/9a9389d3-483c-4387-a9b6-b373c898af07 2024-04-21T08:02:04+00:00 ‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ Lock, Charles 2021-12 https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/thinking-on-location(9a9389d3-483c-4387-a9b6-b373c898af07).html https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Lock , C 2021 , ' ‘Thinking on Location' : 'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ ' , Journal of History & Theory , vol. 60 , no. 4 , pp. 118-140 . https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/FacultyOfHumanities Faculty of Humanities universal/singular global/local contiguity metonymy First Nations postcolonial Bakhtin Badiou article 2021 ftcopenhagenunip https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 2024-03-28T01:21:49Z This essay addresses problems of how and what we know in an attempt to distinguish what’s inside from what’s outside and to figure out whether acts of knowing can be plotted on either side of any boundary that might claim to separate inside from outside. Moving beyond the familiar dialectics derived from Hegel’s theory of history, the essay reflects on the author’s experience as a teacher of English literature “abroad” who has tried to disclaim any privileged access to the interpretation of texts written in English. It was possible to maintain a status as outsider when teaching texts written across the postcolonial world, but such a position was not sustainable when teaching literature by authors from the First Nations of North America. Throughout, various theoretical alterna- tives are posited, from Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s “outsidedness” to Alain Badiou’s pursuit (following Saint Paul) of “universal singularity.” None of these theories seems adequate, and the essay’s argument finds itself circling around the intractable. That figure of “cir- cling around” would suggest that the outside had been attained, but one can always think of a theme, a context, or a relation in which the subject would find itself again inhabiting the inside. Structuring the argument is the notion of place and location and the Viconian yearning for the strictly geometrical representation of history, and thence of entities in fixed places, and of constant spatial relations between entities—and of metonymy as the figure by whose suppression, alone, space and time have been enabled to persist in their Kantian sovereignty as the a priori categories that ground all our knowing. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations University of Copenhagen: Research History and Theory 60 4 118 140 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Copenhagen: Research |
op_collection_id |
ftcopenhagenunip |
language |
English |
topic |
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/FacultyOfHumanities Faculty of Humanities universal/singular global/local contiguity metonymy First Nations postcolonial Bakhtin Badiou |
spellingShingle |
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/FacultyOfHumanities Faculty of Humanities universal/singular global/local contiguity metonymy First Nations postcolonial Bakhtin Badiou Lock, Charles ‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ |
topic_facet |
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/FacultyOfHumanities Faculty of Humanities universal/singular global/local contiguity metonymy First Nations postcolonial Bakhtin Badiou |
description |
This essay addresses problems of how and what we know in an attempt to distinguish what’s inside from what’s outside and to figure out whether acts of knowing can be plotted on either side of any boundary that might claim to separate inside from outside. Moving beyond the familiar dialectics derived from Hegel’s theory of history, the essay reflects on the author’s experience as a teacher of English literature “abroad” who has tried to disclaim any privileged access to the interpretation of texts written in English. It was possible to maintain a status as outsider when teaching texts written across the postcolonial world, but such a position was not sustainable when teaching literature by authors from the First Nations of North America. Throughout, various theoretical alterna- tives are posited, from Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s “outsidedness” to Alain Badiou’s pursuit (following Saint Paul) of “universal singularity.” None of these theories seems adequate, and the essay’s argument finds itself circling around the intractable. That figure of “cir- cling around” would suggest that the outside had been attained, but one can always think of a theme, a context, or a relation in which the subject would find itself again inhabiting the inside. Structuring the argument is the notion of place and location and the Viconian yearning for the strictly geometrical representation of history, and thence of entities in fixed places, and of constant spatial relations between entities—and of metonymy as the figure by whose suppression, alone, space and time have been enabled to persist in their Kantian sovereignty as the a priori categories that ground all our knowing. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lock, Charles |
author_facet |
Lock, Charles |
author_sort |
Lock, Charles |
title |
‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ |
title_short |
‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ |
title_full |
‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ |
title_fullStr |
‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ |
title_full_unstemmed |
‘Thinking on Location':'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ |
title_sort |
‘thinking on location':'an essay in the vulnerability of the subject’ |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/thinking-on-location(9a9389d3-483c-4387-a9b6-b373c898af07).html https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Lock , C 2021 , ' ‘Thinking on Location' : 'An Essay in the Vulnerability of the Subject’ ' , Journal of History & Theory , vol. 60 , no. 4 , pp. 118-140 . https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12240 |
container_title |
History and Theory |
container_volume |
60 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
118 |
op_container_end_page |
140 |
_version_ |
1796942260058718208 |