Otherness in Focus: The Conceptualisation of the Other in Contemporary Thought (Orient/Occident)
L'altérité en question : La conceptualisation de l'Autre dans la pensée contemporaine (Orient/Occident)
Published on Thursday, April 04, 2024
Abstract
Set within an interdisciplinary perspective, this conference raises questions around otherness and its representations in contemporary thought between the Orient and the Occident. Studies devoted to the question of otherness and its corollaries – alienation, discrimination, inclusion and exclusion – are considerably important and their potential has nourished scientific reflexion and drawn extensive attention on the part of authors, sociologists, journalists, political scientists and ethnologists. Such representations of the image of the Other are shaped by imaginaries that feed partly upon the perceptions of the historical past, that of colonialism and imperialism, and partly from newly-born representations with the advent of this third millennium.
Announcement
Hybrid International Conference / 2nd Edition
19 & 20 November 2024
Organized by Latifa SARI M. & Souad BERBAR
Rationale
Set within an interdisciplinary perspective, this conference raises questions around otherness and its representations in contemporary thought between the Orient and the Occident. As subsumed by Alex Mucchielli (1992), identity is the result of social contact and its construct is inseparable from the notion of otherness. It evolves through interactions with others as posited by George H. Mead as early as 1934 in Mind, Self and Society when he stated that the self “arises in the process of social experience and activity, that is, develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within that process” (p. 135). Hence the ambiguity of the notion of otherness and difference; for if the other is felt as opposed to the self, the stranger can be a threat to our collective identity as well as to our self-identity. Indeed, otherness, or alterity in the modern sense, induces in our imaginaries a feeling of alienation that challenges our existence. However, can the self be formed without a relation to the other? Is not our inherent identity that of another who is “alien” to our selves for the sake of better revealing us? In other words, otherness may occur in reciprocity, exchange and mutual respect as it can take place in struggle, conflict and violence.
Studies devoted to the question of otherness and its corollaries – alienation, discrimination, inclusion and exclusion – are considerably important and their potential has nourished scientific reflexion and drawn extensive attention on the part of authors, sociologists, journalists, political scientists and ethnologists. Such representations of the image of the Other are shaped by imaginaries that feed partly upon the perceptions of the historical past, that of colonialism and imperialism, and partly from newly-born representations with the advent of this third millennium.
Beyond the media controversies and stubborn attitudes involving reductive social concepts (such as Islamic veil, extremism, fanaticism), conflicts between the West and the Middle East have notably increased in the last decades, allowing information channels to create biased stereotypes for both antagonists (Occident and Orient) by intensifying their means of spreading and provoking reactions of rejection or endorsement, even of stiffened identity.
The Western gaze has always been haunted by the Orient, this close and intimate stranger. It has never ceased to amplify it with negative representations in the form of such labels as fanatic, barbarous, fundamentalist and terrorist; thus precluding any sort of dialogue. This attitude is best explained by Edward W. Said in his seminal work Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (1978) where he demonstrates how the West has shaped the image of the Orient as inferior and dominated while the Occident “gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self” (p.3). Said aimed his discourse at structuring a line of thought beyond colonialism, by deconstructing the stereotypical dichotomies and binary oppositions deeply ingrained into Western thought and which contributed to promote the identity of one and reduce that of the other; namely, the Others and the Occident, the primitive and the civilized, the developed and the underdeveloped, etc. Edward Said has significantly contributed to expose the negative image created by the Occident about the Orient as he claimed that “the Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences” (p.1). It was produced by orientalist discourse as dark, mysterious, savage, exotic, erotic, and indulging in sensuality; all such preconceived ideas that have contributed negatively to build the Arab-Islamic identity.
It is worth noting that nowadays the Arab world is living on the defensive, keen on destroying the stereotypical images conveyed by Western media and affirming its identity that is constantly assaulted. It is high time to unveil History from both sides (Orient/Occident) and thus restore the true identity of an Orient presently fractured and dis-oriented. By establishing parallels between the past and the present, the conference insists on the History of the Eastern countries from the perspective of the oriental world; or in the words of Amine Maalouf (2001), on narrating History as seen from the other side, the side least heard from.
Many questions are raised through this scientific event: how can individual or social identity be defined in the movement of human exchanges and interactions? How can we reflect the impact of globalisation/westernization on identity crises and their consequences, including alienation, discrimination and prejudice? In addition to the socio-political events and conflicts that are still influencing Western imaginaries and spreading through social media demonizing images of the Other that confine it to pejorative clichés. The Occident has hitherto been restricted to its orientalist vision and remained impervious to oriental influences. In other words, to apply Edward Said’s manner of apprehending these conflicts when he states: “What I called for in Orientalism was a new way of conceiving the separations and conflicts that had stimulated generations of hostility, war, and imperial control” (p. 352).
In the light of economic, socio-political and geostrategic changes witnessed by the oriental world in the last decades, and which continue to shape contemporary reality, the conference is an opportunity to interrogate the new representations of the Other that are spread by literary and artistic imaginaries, by governmental discourse, social media and western as well as oriental mass media.
The conference aims at structuring its themes around the following tracks:
- The representation of the Orient and the Occident through historical events (past/present)
- The conceptualization of the Other in the Global era (Orient/Occident)
- Orientalist and neo-orientalist theories and representations of the Other in the socio-political, media and editorial systems and their interpretative reading
- The evolution of knowledge and the present socio-geopolitical organization: how to understand the conflicting situation and the impact of the West on the Near/Middle East (Arab World)?
- Otherness in literature and artistic genres: performing arts, visual arts, cinematographic arts, plastic arts (Orient/Occident).
Participation Terms
The conference languages are English, French
A communication proposal of about 300 words including a title, abstract, five keywords and a short bio-bibliographical note should be sent to the following email addresses: labolanguesllc@gmail.com // berbar.souad@gmail.com
before June 10th, 2024
Participants have to state the selected track best corresponding to their proposal.
The proposals will be reviewed by the scientific committee of the conference. The final programme will be available on October 15th, 2024. After the conference, the scientific committee will select the papers to be published.
Participation Form
Name and Surname:
University/Institution:
Phone:
Email:
Supervisor (if you are a PhD student):
Title of the proposal:
Abstract (300 words):
Keywords (5)/track:
Bibliographical references:
Bio-bibliographical note:
Important dates
- Deadline for sending proposals: 10 June 2024;
- Proposals evaluation results: 20 June 2024;
- Final programme of the conference: 15 October 2024;
- Sending of the communication: November 2024;
- Conference date: 19-20 November 2024.
Conference organizers
Prof. Latifa SARI M. & Dr Souad BERBAR
Research laboratory: L.L.C: https://llc.univ-tlemcen.dz/en
Address: Abou Bakr Belkaid University, Tlemcen: https://www.univ-tlemcen.dz/en
Comité scientifique / Scientific Committee
- ABBACI Amel (Univ. Tlemcen)
- BECHLAGHEM Samira (ENS - Oran)
- BELKAID Amaria (Univ. Tlemcen)
- BENMANSOUR Smain (Univ. Tlemcen)
- BERBAR Souad (Univ. Tlemcen)
- BOUAZZA Mrahia (Univ. Relizane)
- BOUSTANI Sobhi (INALCO – Paris)
- CHAOUIB Fatiha (Univ. Ain Temouchent)
- CUTTER Nat (Univ. Melbourne-Australie)
- DADABHOY Ambereen (Harvey Mudd College, California/USA)
- DENOOZ Laurence (Univ. Lorraine)
- DIAMANTOULI Anna (The American Collège of Greece)
- DJAVARI Mohammad Hossein (Univ. Tabriz –Iran)
- EL BACHIR Hanane (Univ. Oran 2)
- GUETTAFI Sihem (Univ. Biskra)
- HALILOGLU Nagihan (Univ. Istanbul)
- KHERBOUCH Ghouti (Univ. Tlemcen)
- MARIF Miloud (Univ. Saida)
- MAZBOUDI Badia (Univ. libanaise-Beyrouth)
- MEDAWAR Carole (Univ. Libanaise-Beyrouth)
- MERAD CHAOUCH Zineb (Univ. Tlemcen)
- MOURO Wassila (Univ. Tlemcen)
- OZAVCI Ozan (Univ. Ultrecht/Netherlands)
- RAHMOUN Omar (Univ. Tlemcen)
- SARI MOHAMMED Leila (Univ. Tlemcen)
- SARI M. Latifa (Univ. Tlemcen)
- SAYAD Abdelkader (Univ. Mostaganem)
- TROVATO Loredana (Univ. Messine/Italie)
Comité d’organisation / Organizing Committee
Latifa SARI, Souad BERBAR, Wassila MOURO, Zineb CHAOUCH, Leila SARI MOHAMMED, Ghouti KHERBOUCH, Smain BENMANSOUR, Omar RAHMOUN, Faiza HADDAM, Khaled TAGMI, Esma MANSOURI, Souhila BRAHIMI, Amina MEZEREG, Khadidja RAHOUI.
Subjects
Places
- Les 30 Laboratoires, Université de Tlemcen, - Nouveau Pôle, Rocade
Tlemcen, Algeria (13000)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Monday, June 10, 2024
Attached files
Keywords
- Altérité, identité, Orient, Occident, pensée contemporaine, orientalisme, représentatiosn, clichés, stéréotypie, préjugés.
Contact(s)
- Latifa SARI MOHAMMED
courriel : medialangues2019 [at] gmail [dot] com
Reference Urls
Information source
- Latifa SARI MOHAMMED
courriel : medialangues2019 [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Otherness in Focus: The Conceptualisation of the Other in Contemporary Thought (Orient/Occident) », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Thursday, April 04, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/w5vv