Sultan Moulay Slimane University
Department of English Studies
The Research Laboratory in Culture and Communication (RLCC)
Middle Ground: Journal of Literary and Cultural Encounters
Beni Mellal, Morocco
EXOTICISM / EXOTIC
The Research Laboratory in Culture and Communication calls for articles for publication in the fourth issue of its Journal Middle Ground. The topic is Exoticism/the Exotic in colonial and postcolonial thought and literature.
* The undertheorization of Exoticism / the Exotic, in Postcolonial thought and theory in the last 25 years, is compounded with the reliance of Postcolonial theorists and critics on Relativist models of Exoticism / the Exotic, for example, Said (1978; 1993) and Bhabha (1994).
* In the absence of a serious Postcolonial intervention on Exoticism, the Postcolonial critique of Orientalism and Exoticism has relied on the Relativist concepts of 'Exoticism' / Exotic' and their Eurocentric conceptual frameworks, while casting identification with the Exotic and writing back as Caliban as undermining colonial discourse and colonial representations .
* Does Gayatri Spivak's thesis on the "undecidability" of reading the colonial Other and 'native informant ' in cultural history (Spivak, 1999) really represent a breakthrough in Postcolonial readings and re-writings of the colonial Other and Exotic, or is it itself another configuration of the undertheorization of the colonial Other and Exotic in Postcolonial theory and criticism? To what extent does Spivak (1999) open a space beyond the limitations of Said / Bhabha 's interventions on Exoticism / Exotic?
* Is an ETHICAL reading and re-writing of the Exotic in cultural history ultimately possible within the Eurocentric conceptual framework of "Exoticism" / "Exotic"? To what extent would a Foucauldian archaeology of Exoticism / Exotic provide the basis for an effective Postcolonial intervention on colonial and Postcolonial Exoticism?
* Does Postcolonial Exoticism -- the Postcolonial recovery and celebration of the Exotic in Postcolonial thought and literature -- represent an effective challenge to Exoticism as a major cultural phenomenon of colonial culture, or does it merely represent a cultural impasse? Is Victor Segalen's re-definition of Exoticism / Exotic relevant to Postcolonial theory and criticism?
* To what extent is the assimilation of Victor Segalen's Exoticist project into Orientalism and the French colonial tradition of Exoticism convincing? Does not Segalen's Exoticism project represent a major epistemological possibility for a non-hegemonic and non-assimilationist cultural inscription of the Exotic in Postmodern thought and culture? Does not the assimilation of Segalen's writings on Exoticism into the colonial tradition run the risk of homogenizing such important Postmodern trends represented by Segalen and French Surrealist Exoticists with the colonial tradition?
* To what extent is the assimilation of Postmodern trends of Exoticism -- exemplified by Segalen, Henri Michaux, Paul Morand, Michael Ondatjee, Paul Bowles, among others, into Eurocentrism, colonial Exoticism, and Orientalism -- challenged by the re-positioning of Self/Other, the West /Exotic in such writers? In what ways do such writers and their Exoticist projects break beyond Eurocentrism, colonial Exoticism, and Orientalism, and provide new grounds for cultural encounters involving the West / Exotic?
Articles may address, but not exclusively, any aspect of the topic of exoticism/the exotic such as:
- Colonial/Postcolonial forms of exoticism
- Postcolonial Critique of the practices/discourses of exoticism
- Exoticism and the issue of race/racism, nation/nationality, gender/sexuality
- Exoticism, Eroticism, Fetishism
- The Exotic/Exoticism in the Visual Arts
- Exoticism and indigeneity
- The West as Exotic
- The concept of Exoticism in philosophy
Articles are welcome from scholars and specialists working on exoticism/the Exotic in the fields of social sciences and the humanities. The deadline for submissions is Friday the 1st of October 2010. Articles are to be addressed in word-doc format to syad.mohamedsghir@gmail.com and m_ground@yahoo.com and should include the author's name, email address, affiliation, and a postal address. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by Monday 15th November 2010.