This is the second volume of a two-volume co-authored study that explores the history of the concept of barbarism from the eighteenth century to the present and highlights its foundational role in... Show moreThis is the second volume of a two-volume co-authored study that explores the history of the concept of barbarism from the eighteenth century to the present and highlights its foundational role in modern European and Western identity. It constitutes an original comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of the concept’s modern European and Western history and combines overviews with detailed analyses of representative works of literature, art, fi lm, philosophy, and political and cultural theory. Volume 2 broaches figurations of barbarism and mobilizations of the barbarian across diverse contexts, media, and fields from the early twentieth century to our present: from avant-garde manifestoes to contemporary multilingual literature and adaptations of the Medea myth, from anticolonial to eco-socialist texts, from political philosophy and ethno-anthropology to contemporary pop culture, from Russian poetry to Western political rhetoric, from Europe to Latin America, from cinema to art biennials, and from (neo-)Marxists to the Alt-Right. Show less
This study analyses official Russian foreign policy discourses to contribute to our understanding of how Russia portrays its role in world politics and vis-à-vis neighbouring states. Building on... Show moreThis study analyses official Russian foreign policy discourses to contribute to our understanding of how Russia portrays its role in world politics and vis-à-vis neighbouring states. Building on previous studies, we offer a new, comprehensive analysis of Foreign Policy Concepts and the annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly during President Vladimir Putin’s third term (2012–2018). By systematically coding these documents, counting references to particular discourses and undertaking a careful interpretation of the texts, we provide insights about three broader discourses related to foreign policy: the world order and sovereignty; civilisation, identity and values; and economics and modernisation. Show less
The Savage as Living Ghost is a study about four scholarly failures to dismantle the notion of the savage in Western discourse. These scholarly attempts are, broadly, structuralist,... Show moreThe Savage as Living Ghost is a study about four scholarly failures to dismantle the notion of the savage in Western discourse. These scholarly attempts are, broadly, structuralist, poststructuralist, postcolonial or multiculturalist, and decolonial. This study examines these four scholarly attempts by confronting them with close-readings of literary works or films in which the notion of the savage is attached to or associated with Native Americans. As Native Americans constitute the paradigmatic figuration of the savage since the European conquest of America, I focus particularly on the ways the West has constructed Native Americans as savages in this study. In Western discourse, the terms “savage” and “civilized” appear quite frequently in political speeches, the media, academic works, and daily conversation. This study looks critically at the rhetoric of civilization which designates Native Americans as savages and Europeans as civilized, and traces how the notion of the savage serves as a moral and cultural term to establish a hierarchy between Native Americans and the Europeans. Studying this process of othering reveals the dark side of European modernity. Show less
Barbarism, Otherwise is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the operations of the concept of barbarism and the figure of the barbarian in modern and contemporary works of literature, art, and theory.... Show moreBarbarism, Otherwise is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the operations of the concept of barbarism and the figure of the barbarian in modern and contemporary works of literature, art, and theory. The terms __barbarism,__ __barbarians,__ and __civilization__ figure prominently in politics, the media, historiography, cultural theory, and everyday language in the West. This study takes issue with the currently popular rhetoric of __civilization versus barbarism__ and interrogates contemporary and historical uses of the __barbarian__ in the West. Although __barbarism__ is traditionally viewed as the negative offshoot of __civilization,__ this study shows how it can be recast as a critical concept in cultural theory. The central issue is not __who (or where) are the barbarians?__ but what kind of critical operations barbarism can be involved in. This study thus proposes a shift from an essentialist to a performative approach to barbarism and the barbarian. How can the operations of barbarism in literature, art, and theory unsettle the concept__s violent uses in Western discourses? How can barbarism trigger new modes of knowing, comparing, and theorizing? Can it inspire alternative ways of relating to others that are not based on essentialist binary schemes? In order to pluralize barbarism and chart its complex operations, this study draws from theory, politics, history, literature, visual art, film, and philosophy, and engages cultural objects from various national contexts. Show less
