Barbarism, otherwise : Studies in literature, art, and theory

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. 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.