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Based on a 1993 international seminar headed by Mudimbe which included scholars from around the world. The essays focus on the social and political concepts of nation, identity and culture as they relate to exile and ethnicity.
List of contents
Introduction / V. Y. Mudimbe 1
Pre-Texts and Models
Race, Class, and Gender in the Formation of the Aryan Model of Greek Origins / Martin Bernal 7
Civil Society: From Utopia to Management, from Marxism to Anti-Marxism / Dominique Colas 29
Case Studies
Kongo Identity, 1483–1993 / Wyatt MacGaffey 45
The Current Great Narrative of Québecois Identity / Jocelyn Létourneau 59
Between Universalism and Particularism: The "Border" in Israeli Discourse / Daphna Golan 75
Reimagining Lebanon / miriam cooke 95
The Ethnicization of Nations: Russia, the Soviet Union, and the People / Thomas Lahusen 123
Small Differences—Large Issues: The Make and Remaking of a National Border / Anders Linde-Laursen 143
Post-Texts and Systems
Dialectical Identity in a "Post-Critical" Era: A Hegelian Reading / John McCumber 165
The Insurmountable Contradictions of Liberalism: Human Rights and the Rights of Peoples in the Geoculture of the Modern World-System / Immanuel Wallerstein 181
On Producing the Concept of a Global Culture / Kenneth Surin 199
Notes on Contributors 221
Index 223
About the author
V. Y. Mudimbe is William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of French, Comparative Literature, and Classics at Stanford University. He is also Distinguished Research Professor in the Graduate Program in Literature at Duke University.
Summary
Examines the degree to which 20th century representations of colonisation, and modernity are 19th century constructs. This volume investigates the concepts of nation, identity, and culture as they have evolved within the contexts of exile and the ethnicisation of the political. It is aimed at those engaged in postcolonial and cultural studies.
