Introduction: The minor in question

Abstract

Dedicated to “the minor in question,” this issue of Cultural Dynamics investigates the renewed potential and conceptual valence of the “minor,” both as a critical category and a methodological framework, for thinking through questions of positionality and performance, of agency and ways of being, for marginal subjects whose creative and expressive cultures circumvent dominant influences and hierarchical systems of power. Grounded in the work of comparative literature and theory, the volume gathers contributions by scholars from a variety of disciplines in the Humanities, whose works lie at the intersection of various linguistic expressions, geographical arrangements, cultural formations, and so-called minor orientations within established area studies programs. Considering how aesthetic forms convey the “minor” as a cultural entity, they approach it both as a dynamic category and a fluid positionality, not only to uncover the diverse forms that violence, domination, and inequalities take across multiple contexts, but also to challenge static representations of minor subjects and communities as passive, isolated, and/or disempowered.