Post-colonial agendas: the other, identity & the culture of politics

In the contemporary world it is possible to identify the persistent labelling and questioning of the Other - the unknown, the inscrutable and indecipherable - and identity and difference, as major foci of address.

Repressed histories of race, gender and class and encounters with the non-Western world in general, present some of the most important challenges to the management and policies of cultural organisations at both local and governmental levels. Globalisation and migration constitute social and political issues that impact upon notions of art and culture, their management and policy.

This module reflects on the institutional management of culture and the arts and asks how notions of the Other affect policy, management and criticism.

Indicative content

This module introduces the subject: identifying the Other, the main theoretical and critical concerns of the Other, and it encourages you to explore:

• the ethnographic subject - the subject of ethnography
• questions of the Other in current criticism - encounters with the non-Western World, and repressed histories of race, gender and class, which arguably present some of the most important challenges to arts criticism and the institutional management of art
• the making of an Other - the institutional management of the Other
• multiculturalism and diversity - a history of multiculturalism and diversity in the UK context in particular and as an issue for liberal democracies in a global context
• criticising the Other - arguments against multiculturalism and diversity as enacted in British cultural politics
• the political and cultural legacy of 9/11
• alternative paradigms to identity and difference within a global economy.

Recommended reading

• Araeen, R., Cubitt,S. and Sardar, Z. eds. (2002). The Third Text reader on Art, Culture and Theory. London & New York, Continuum
  
• Ashcroft, B et al. eds. (1996). Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London, Routledge
  
• Butler, J. (2006). Precarious Life: the Power of Mourning and Violence. London and New York, Continuum
  
• Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York, Columbia University Press
  
• Payne, M. and Schad, J. eds. Life after theory. London and New York, Continuum
  
• Said, E. Orientalism. Harmondsworth, Penguin
  
• Sardar, Z. (2004). Beyond Difference: Cultural Relations in the New Century. London, British Council
  
• Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the Pain of Others. London, Hamish Hamilton
  
• Steyn, J. ed. (1997). Other than Identity; the Subject, Politics and Art. Manchester, Manchester University Press
  
• Steyn, J. (1999). The Jew: Assumptions of Identity. London, Cassell