Esprit
2008-07-09
Abstracts for Esprit 7/2008
Joseph Maïla
The Lebanon: Behind the Doha compromise, the national pact is undermined.
The Lebanon has finally elected a new president, political institutions are working again and firearms keep mute. And yet the June 2008 agreement signed in Doha (Qatar) is nothing like a fresh national pact. It does neutralize tensions, while at the same time endorsing Hizbollah's free-riding stance and the group's determination to exercise control over the Lebanese government, including through force.
Pierre Bouvier
Aimé Césaire, "négritude" and poetical overture.
A poetical genius who maintained strong links to his native Caribbean island of Martinique, the recently deceased Aimé Césaire was also, with African-born students, involved in groupings that criticised colonialism in 1930s' Paris. That was how his stay in Paris (where Surrealism was predominant) and his discovery of the African sphere came to leave their mark on his poetical work. The notion of "négritude" (being Black) was also borne of those various encounters.
Maurice Mourier
How past wars undermine France's moral condition.
The wars of the past century, and particularly the war in Algeria, hardly ever feature in France's literary fiction. And yet such unspoken stranglehold, and the associated challenge of overcoming historical defeat, can provide rich subject matter for fictional plots. But then one would also need a degree of trust in the powers of writing.
Alain Ricard
The tsetse fly, a documentary film-maker's nightmare on a polluted lake.
In Darwin's nightmare, a film which earned him some acclaim when released in 2004, Hubert Sauper denounced the exploitation of Africa's mineral resources by Western companies. When summoned by a court to determine, as an "expert", whether this was fiction or non-fiction, the author reflects on the ambiguities of the documentary genre, which in that particular case was pushed closer to allegory and away from reportage by poet and screenplay co-author Nick Flynn.
Jean-Marie Bouissou
How did the manga become a global cultural product?
Japan's pervasive graphical production -- including comics, cartoon series and video games -- is generally perceived as a by-product of both the country's economic might and the debilitated culture that is often associated with globalization. And yet this success also has to do with the intrinsic interest of this material as it provides a fair reflection of our post-industrial, globalised world better than French quality comics can manage.
Michaël Foessel
Being recognised: Right or fantasy?
Does giving more prominence to the notion of recognition not amount to a surrender to a very trendy claim carried by generalised individualism? We all want recognition, don't we? The value of the notion is at first visible in a negative way, being based on our resentment of some denial of justice. Now how do we take this feeling of unfairness into account and turn it into a political process?
Fabien Lamouche
Paul Ric¦ur and the "clearings" of recognition.
For all his reticence when faced with the perspective of a "politics of recognition", which he feared could stoke an insatiable contest of subjective minds, Ric¦ur argued in favour of something else: the possibility of moments of respite, or even happiness, in the process of mutual recognition, which he refers to metaphorically as "clearings".
The philosophy of recognition: A social critique. An interview with Axel Honneth
The German philosopher details how his work continues along the lines of the Frankfurt School, of which he is a disciple, and as part of an ongoing dialogue with Juergen Habermas. He also explains why, in his view, a theory of justice such as developed by John Rawls fails to pave the way for a critical analysis of contemporary society.
Axel Honneth
Reification, cognition and recognition: On some misunderstandings.
In Reification, Axel Honneth wonders whether this notion, as borrowed from Marx, can still be of
any use. Rather than echoing the critique of "commodification", he enquires into why routine attitudes are
changing our behaviour toward others.
Danny Trom
The crisis in social critique as seen from Paris and Frankfurt.
The Frankfurt School's critical theory has, for a long time, been an influence on French sociology which, in turn, has not been overlooked by Habermas and Honneth. However, behind this mutual influence lurk a number of specifically Franco-German misunderstandings over the very nature of social critique and its political
Guillaume le Blanc
Recognition as a social experience.
The theme of recognition is spreading to a number of areas, but this has to do less with an insatiable
demand for consideration or respect than a determination to play one's part in social life. This is assuming
that even before any attempt to speak out, there is potential to gain visibility on the social scene, the
suppression of which represents a major form of disenfranchisement these days.
François Dubet
Inequity and recognition.
What exactly is the nature of the claim when, in industrial relations, people demand "better recognition"?
Behind a number of expectations, three principles are at play: equality, merit and autonomy. Now, these
three principles are often found at loggerheads with each other in practical situations. How do we arrive at
the necessary compromises? It falls to a theory of justice (not of recognition) to sort out claims that are both
legitimate and antagonistic.