Rancière,Derrida, and Egalitarian Politics in Pseudo-Dionysius

Abstract

Using the work of Jacques Rancière, I argue for an egalitarian reading of the political hierarchy in Pseudo-Dionysius. I first analyze various historical attempts to derive a political theory from Pseudo-Dionysius in the work of Juan Miguel Garrigues, René Roques, and Dominic O’Meara. I then turn to Jacques Derrida's attempt to distinguish deconstruction from negative theology, and consider especially the political effects of this strategy. I argue that Derrida's attempt to undermine Psuedo-Dionysius's system from within is unsuccessful, and suggest instead that Rancière provides the conceptual tools to identify an egalitarianism within Dionysian political theory     

Domestic Economy and Daily Practice in Guadeloupe: Historical Archaeology at La Mahaudière Plantation

Archaeological research has made significant contributions to the study of the African Diaspora in the Caribbean, but until recently researchers neglected the French islands. This paper reports on archaeological fieldwork at Habitation La Mahaudière in Guadeloupe, focusing on the economic and social lives of plantation laborers and exploring articulations between local realities at this sugar plantation and broader historical process of the Caribbean region and the French colonial world.     

You’re not welcome at my table: racial discourse,conflict and healing at the kitchen table

In this article, we reflect on the need for, and geography of, embodied cross-racial talk in the current political context. We reflect on our 2015 article ‘Kitchen Table Reflexivity: Negotiating Positionality through Everyday Talk’ to question whether we were too optimistic in our advocacy of the kitchen table as a space for racial reconciliation through interracial dialogue. We draw on our own experiences to explore multiple tables at which we may or may not both be present. In conclusion, we encourage everyone to do the hard work of determining which tables are the right ones for them to be present at to have the hard, but necessary, conversations about race and racialization in our contemporary society.     

Communities and archaeology under the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat,West Indies

Abstract

The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria calls a “traumascape”—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.     

‘You’re not big,you’re just in Asia’: Expatriate embodiment and emotional experiences of size in Singapore§

This article brings together work on privileged migration with critical geographical work on body size. In uniting these areas together I focus on the role of embodiment within expatriate experiences of migration to Singapore. I argue that despite a developing body of critical work on migration, this work has failed to explore embodied experiences of size. To counter this gap, this research demonstrates the importance of recognising how sized narratives and experiences are shaped through gendered migration and the need to explore the multiplicity of experiences of women in different places of the city. Drawing upon empirical research with expatriate women in Singapore I advance work within critical geographies of body size by presenting original work that challenges dominant and medicalised understandings of fatness as inherently bad. Furthermore, I contribute to the growing area of work that places emphasis on the subjective nature of size through recognition of work on migration. In this article, I explore how migration was embodied and discussed through size, firstly by looking at how women discussed losing their sense of identity. Secondly, the temporal and spatial embeddedness of size. Finally, how women rejected and resisted dominant discourses through humour and indifference.     

The Interplay between History/Memory/Space in Tassadit Imache's: Presque un Frère and Le Dromadaire de Bonaparte

During the last two years media attention has centred on the issue of torture during the Algerian war. An exploration of this debate shows that the deep passions and tensions which have, in the past, bitterly divided the participants in the war and prevented an objective historical investigation or dialogue, are now receding. In France, in spite of a long history of state secrecy surrounding 'sensitive' archives, there has been a quiet but significant liberalisation of access and a new body of research based on this huge and growing body of evidence is dramatically changing our understanding of the war. Although many historians hope to see a growing Franco-Algerian collaboration, the torture debate reveals at the same time how far the current political crisis in Algeria and the authoritarian military regime continue to impede access to archives and a more open research agenda.     

« Au bal masqué de l'amour,cavalier, cavalière,on danse toujours avec sa mère »: Ni toi ni moi de Camille Laurens,Adolphe de Benjamin Constant

Cet article étudie l'impossibilité de s'installer dans une relation amoureuse durable, sujet principal de ces deux romans du XIX^e et du XXI^e siècle: Adolphe (1816) de Benjamin Constant et Ni toi ni moi (2006) de Camille Laurens. Ni toi ni moi réfère massivement à la vie et à l'?uvre de Benjamin Constant, Adolphe étant son hypotexte déclaré. Dans l'« investigation » de la disparition mystérieuse de l'amour, pourquoi convoquer Benjamin Constant, et comment ? Dans cet article, je m'attache à examiner, dans une première partie, le « bricolage » dont relève toute forme d'hypertextualité (je me réfère aux travaux de Gérard Genette): sa part de jeu aussi bien que son caractère dysphorique. Je me propose d'étudier, dans une seconde partie, le thème de l'abandon, lié à la perte, à la séparation involontaire; je convoque, ce faisant, le concept de la « mère morte » théorisé par André Green.     

The rotten apple and the good apples: Orthodox,Catholics, and Turks in Philippe de Mézières' crusading propaganda

The late medieval English gentry are now receiving the attention they deserve. The higher levels of gentry society are, however, the usual (though by no means the exclusive) focus of this attention and this tends to make them appear a social caste aloof from their fellows. This article questions whether the upper gentry were very far removed from their social inferiors. It also supports those historians of later medieval England who have questioned the validity of the ‘county community’, a fashionable concept in recent English historiography, if hitherto primarily the hobbyhorse of several seventeenth-century scholars.