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The Space of the Intellectual: Displacement in Edward Said, Marc Auges, and Jacques Ranciere
by Cristos Hadjiyiannis
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Fall 2008
the space of the intellectual:
displacement in edward said
marc auges
and jacques ranciere
cristos hadjiyiannis is currently in his second year of a PhD in English at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures atthe university
of edinburgh, uk. His doctoral project considers the poetic theory and practice of T.E. Hulme, with particular reference to Hulme's contribution to the development of modernist aesthetics as well as the relation between academic philosophy and modernist poetry in the early twentieth century and in the aesthetic theory of Jacques Ranciere.
In his 1993 lecture 'Intellectual Exile: Expatriates and Marginals', Edward Said interrogates the role and purpose of the post-colonial intellectual in contemporary society,
by rethinking and reconceptualising the notion of exile. Said begins by challenging
the negative connotations which 'exile' often carries, questioning what he sees as a popular-yet-mistaken idea: 'that being exiled is to be totally cut off, isolated, hopelessly separated from your place of origin' (RI 36)1. As well as the 'actual' condition of an individual 'wandering away' from 'familiar places,' exile, Said finds, taken in its metaphorical
sense as the displacement from the familiar or the worldly, fits best the model of life of the 'nay-sayer' intellectual, Said's name for the individual who is consciously working at odds with her society, refusing to 'take up life' and choosing, instead, to dwell indefinitely in 'a state of inbetweenness' (RI 43, 45). In this 'exilic displacement', as he calls it, there lies the possibility for critical and, thus, constructive, thinking and action. It is this very idea of exile as the necessary 'place' of the intellectual that this paper seeks to explore. By examining Said's idea of 'exilic displacement' vis-à-vis Marc Augé's anthropology of non-places (non-lieux), and Jacques Rancière's politics of aesthetics,
this article addresses a question which is central both in post-colonial studies more specifically, as well as in modern-day critical theory more widely; namely, what is the right place for the intellectual in contemporary society?
displacement in edward said
marc auges
and jacques ranciere
cristos hadjiyiannis is currently in his second year of a PhD in English at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures atthe university
of edinburgh, uk. His doctoral project considers the poetic theory and practice of T.E. Hulme, with particular reference to Hulme's contribution to the development of modernist aesthetics as well as the relation between academic philosophy and modernist poetry in the early twentieth century and in the aesthetic theory of Jacques Ranciere.
In his 1993 lecture 'Intellectual Exile: Expatriates and Marginals', Edward Said interrogates the role and purpose of the post-colonial intellectual in contemporary society,
by rethinking and reconceptualising the notion of exile. Said begins by challenging
the negative connotations which 'exile' often carries, questioning what he sees as a popular-yet-mistaken idea: 'that being exiled is to be totally cut off, isolated, hopelessly separated from your place of origin' (RI 36)1. As well as the 'actual' condition of an individual 'wandering away' from 'familiar places,' exile, Said finds, taken in its metaphorical
sense as the displacement from the familiar or the worldly, fits best the model of life of the 'nay-sayer' intellectual, Said's name for the individual who is consciously working at odds with her society, refusing to 'take up life' and choosing, instead, to dwell indefinitely in 'a state of inbetweenness' (RI 43, 45). In this 'exilic displacement', as he calls it, there lies the possibility for critical and, thus, constructive, thinking and action. It is this very idea of exile as the necessary 'place' of the intellectual that this paper seeks to explore. By examining Said's idea of 'exilic displacement' vis-à-vis Marc Augé's anthropology of non-places (non-lieux), and Jacques Rancière's politics of aesthetics,
this article addresses a question which is central both in post-colonial studies more specifically, as well as in modern-day critical theory more widely; namely, what is the right place for the intellectual in contemporary society?
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posted 12/17/09 @ 10:24 AM EST
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