Concept Of Otherness Research Articles

Malabou, Medicine and Film: Screening Brain Injury, Organ Transplantation and Plasticity in Katell Quillévéré's Heal the Living

This article brings Catherine Malabou's explorations of bodily mutation and metamorphosis at the intersections of philosophy and biomedical science into contact with film. In particular, it explores dialogues between Malabou's work on biomedical understandings of bodily plasticity and filmic representations of medical interventions in the body. This article specifically explores Malabou in relation to Katell Quillévéré's film Heal the Living ( Réparer les vivants, 2016), an adaptation of Maylis de Kerangal's novel The Heart ( Réparer les vivants, 2014). The film tells the story of Simon Limbres, who is taken to a hospital following a road accent and pronounced brain dead. The film then explores how Simon undergoes organ donation, following his organs on their journey to other bodies in need. I argue that Heal the Living allows us to challenge and extend Malabou's central thinking of (neuro)plasticity, precisely by emphasising the plasticity of the body beyond and in the wake of the brain. Further, the film's emphasis on transplantation allows for an exploration of interpersonal plasticity, developing an ethics of transplanted plasticity in testing and extending conceptions of otherness and alterity central to Malabou's thinking.

Alteridade e exclusão: o olhar para o outro no poema e na narrativa

This article aims to present two text analytical exercises from the artistic-literary sphere that address increasingly necessary and urgent themes to discuss in the classroom: refugees and black women, minorities that are still absent from many curricula. The analytical exercises of the poem “Army (chusma) of black roses” (2017), written by Cristiane Sobral, and the narrative Two boys of Kakuma (2018), written by Marie Ange Bordas, serve as a proposal for reading activities with students in the final years of elementary education, as they deal with relationships of otherness. These exercises are based on the perspective of Dialogical Discourse Analysis (Brait, 2008), originating from the extensive work on Mikhail Bakhtin and the Circle, in which the other is constitutive of the self. The theoretical foundation is based on the self-other relationship posited by Bakhtin, ([1920/24] 2020) and the concept of otherness (Amorim, 2004). As a result, in our analyses, we point out the centers of values present in literary texts based on the relationship between self and other and, through linguistic-discursive analysis, we lead readers to reflect on themselves and their other.

Understanding Refugees Health Experiences in Host Countries: Three Theoretical Perspectives.

Healthcare providers working with forcefully displaced populations often have limited knowledge and skills regarding the care of this population. The reasons are twofold. First, most of the research on refugee health does not consider refugees' adaptive skills, diversity of experiences, and daily life context. Second, healthcare providers' knowledge of how the sociopolitical environment shapes health research and practice in the context of refugee care is often limited. This work aims to specify gaps in refugee healthcare and research by applying a relational approach to three theoretical frameworks. The relational approach supports a pragmatic, in-depth understanding of healthcare practices by shifting the focus of the inquiry from description of social structures toward exploration of processes and relations that propagate and sustain such structures. The focus is on the threefold interaction between refugees, healthcare providers, and healthcare institutions. The three theoretical frameworks are as follows: First, using concepts from the Theory of Practice by Bourdieu, we examine how gaps in care can result from a mismatch between the dispositions and skills that refugees develop through life experience and the cultural-professional practices of healthcare providers in host countries. Second, the Cultural Determinants of Help Seeking by Saint Arnault is applied to posit that gaps in care can result from differences in the meanings that healthcare providers and refugees assign to their interactions. Finally, we use the concept of Othering as described in nursing by Canales to explain how power dynamics inherent in the interaction between refugees and healthcare systems can affect refugee healthcare and research. This relational approach helps to elucidate some of the culture-bound mechanisms of health maintenance and help-seeking and brings attention to the sociopolitical context that shapes the way we care to refugees.

Porosity and Movement in Life Stories

Fueled by intellectual curiosity, literary discourse oscillates between factual and fictional narratives. Continually nourished by reality and imagination, it reflects a binary rhythm of representativeness and subjectivity. This work analyzes the biographical genre to explore the shift in rhetorical boundaries and representations in self-narratives. It examines various techniques writers use to reclaim the territory of intimate stories and lives. Infusing these narratives with meaning and unity aims to bridge the gap between the individual and the world. Awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to feminist writer Annie Ernaux highlights the growing interest in the biographical genre. Ernaux, known for placing intimacy at the heart of her work, brings attention to this genre that often navigates through narratives marked by left-wing and 'politically correct' perspectives. Consequently, the genre emerges as a vital participant in the world's progress, establishing self-literature that withstands the test of time. A cross-study of various life stories — including intimate narratives, extremist views, self-portraits, memoirs, autobiographical novels, autofictions, and travel stories — enables us to understand the porosity and movement within this expansive genre. By presenting and juxtaposing different biographies, writers create a space for interaction, allowing the lives of others to permeate our understanding. Consequently, the biographical genre, serving as a mediating force, and the concept of otherness as mediation are reexamined within the fictional landscape of the human mind.
 
 Received: 10 January 2023 / Accepted: 29 February 2024 / Published: 6 March 2024

Overcoming othering through agape

This article explores the theological concept of othering. It investigates how society categorizes those different to the norm in historical, contemporary and biblical narratives. It does not offer solutions as such but finds hope in overcoming the othering in the message of agape that Christian love is unconditional.

Unpacking the Concept of Otherness: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives.

Otherness is a complex and polysemic notion that is conceptualized in both philosophy and psychology. The paper examines otherness as a universal phenomenon of the human psyche that manifests in relation to oneself and interpersonal relationships with others. Philosophical ideas, including those of Hegel, Lévinas and Waldenfels, are introduced as providing essential theoretical background for psychological studies of otherness. The psychological section deals with otherness from various perspectives, with emphasis on internal processes of an individual, drawing on theories within psychoanalytical and intrapsychic traditions, as well as the intersection of otherness and identity. Otherness is introduced as a variable influencing complex individual and social processes, such as the perception of individuals and groups. Finally, a taxonomy of otherness is proposed that reflects the multifaceted nature of the concept and could help navigate the existing literature as well as guide new studies.

Prikaz drugih i drukčijih u akadskoj književnoj tradiciji, iz perspektive Emmanuela Levinasa / Portrait of the different and the others in Akkadian literary tradition, from the perspective of Emmanuel Levinas

In the paper Portrait of the different and the others in Akkadian literary tradition, from the perspective of Emmanuel Levinas, the author will, with the help of literary and historical sources from the Akkadian literary tradition, investigate the existence of the different and the others in Akkadian scripture and in their society. The concept of otherness, within Akkadian society, will be linked to the characters of literary works, their sexual orientation, gender, race, disability, ethnic and national affiliation. Furthermore, due to the fact that this topic is socially determined, it is necessary to present the social groups that are identified as the different and the other, not just in the literary, but also in the social and civilizational sense, that is, in the form of their position in Akkadian society. Based on this, with the help of Levinas’s interpretation of the other and otherness, it will be concluded that the ancient Akkadians were a type of society that successfully integrated the different and the others into their society, and in this way those people were enabled to live a normal and dignified life like other members of their community.

Witchcraft or Otherness

Tituba, a supporting character in Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible, can be associated with the concept of otherness in several respects. For one, she is not free like the rest of the population of Salem, Massachusetts, where the play is set, but was brought to the community from the island of Barbados by Reverend Parris as an enslaved woman. Being of Caribbean origin, she is also not an English Protestant like the rest of the village, and despite having accepted her master’s church, as was common for the enslaved throughout the British colonial period, Protestantism is not her first religion. Finally, the two most evident and immediately perceivable characteristics placing her in the category of the Other are her skin colour and her language, which also seem to be the main reasons that she was the first person to be accused of witchcraft in Salem. This paper focuses on Tituba’s speech, particularly from the point of view of the possibilities as well as difficulties of translating her utterances into Slovene. The contrastive analysis includes Miller’s original play, its two Slovene translations, Lov na čarovnice, the published one (1964) and the unpublished theatre translation (1997/2019), as well as a brief insight into two theatre productions of the play at the Maribor National Theatre.

The Approach of Cultural History to the Art of the Middle East: The Concept of Otherness in the Works of Iranian and Middle Eastern Arab Artists

The Approach of Cultural History to the Art of the Middle East: The Concept of Otherness in the Works of Iranian and Middle Eastern Arab Artists

Layers of Subalternity and Scheduled Castes Hindu Women: A Case Study of District Ghotki

Scheduled Castes Hindu women of Ghotki district are facing layers and layers of subalternity in the male dominate district. They are facing social, economic, political and religious discriminations simultaneously. Overall, caste-based discrimination against Scheduled Castes has become norm of the society. Nobody is bothered to look into their life striking subalternity matters. As religious minority in the district, scheduled caste Hindu women are suffering layers of discrimination in an Islamic society, dominated by 99 percent Muslims with additional burden of conversion. The concept of othering can be best illustrated in the sense of Scheduled Caste women; the practice of ‘untouchability is rampant in the society. In other words, they are being considered as Achhoot in the society. As a result, Scheduled Castes often live-in separate colonies, are being compelled to eat food in separate crockery, and are not allowed to sit with Muslims and upper castes Hindus as well. So, in a sense, the Scheduled Castes women face systematic oppression in both public and private spheres; first in Muslim dominated district, second in the higher caste Hindu community and third in the male dominated structures of their own families. At the bottom of social hierarchy, schedule castes women are not only deprived of social assets but also frequently suffer from the violation of personal dignity and freedom through sexual abuse, alienation, abduction and force conversion and marriages. They are facing class bound subalternity, age bound subalternity, gendered bound subalternity, religion bound Subalternity, and political bound subalternity simultaneously.

POSTCOLONIAL “OTHERNESS”

In this paper the category of Otherness has been concerned for those who occupy the subordinate position in society, which have been presented as inferior in terms of knowledge and abilities, which implies that they need the leadership of those who are, by definition, more capable, more educated, more advanced, more civilized, more merciful, etc. On this way, the hierarchy of representations is established, thus justifying the existing ones power relations in society as well as the unequal treatment of those who are represented as inferior. The concept of Otherness within the framework of postcolonial criticism is used to describe the rest of the world, i.e., everything that does not fall within the scope of Europeans, as one homogeneous mass characterized by ugly features. Otherness in postcolonial criticism refers to colonized peoples who are marginalized by the imperial and identified by their difference from the center. Any area that is not part of European soil is considered inferior, dangerous and less valuable. However, in the understanding of the Other, a duality is also noticeable, since he is sometimes considered wild, harmful and mysterious, and sometimes harmless. Hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence are terms which are used in postcolonial analysis. The colonizers tried to categorize the colonized population, and the formation of hybrid patterns prevented that process, since new cultural forms were emerging that no longer corresponded to the descriptions of the colonizers. Colonizers have been the part of Occident and the colonized nations are the Orient or the Others or the category of Otherness. Sharing the same space, Orient and Occident influenced each other, which resulted in the transfer of elements from one culture to another. The fruit of this is the emergence of an intermediate space and a hybrid identity, which is characterized as a simultaneous affection for two or more different and opposing identity patterns, but does not fully belong to any of them.

Otherness without boundaries: an autoethnographic perspective from an aboriginal South African survivor of local xenophobia

In this article, I interrogate the concept of othering by foregrounding xenophobia, which has been ‘trending’ since the dawn of democracy in South Africa. I use lived experiences to assert that xenophobia is not confined to tussles between ‘foreign’ nationals and South African ­citizens but also manifests as ‘local xenophobia’ where South African citizens from ‘elsewhere’ in the country are maligned by ‘locals’ in areas to which they migrate. To underscore the ubiquitous and multifaceted nature of othering, and because it resonates with literature on ­xenophobia, I discuss sobriquets/nicknames as one example among various manifestations of otherness. Furthermore, I contend that self-subjugation as an unconscious process is, possibly, the pillar of othering and, that every human is a tacit or overt otherer. In conclusion, I assert that Ubuntu as an architectonic capability should be redefined and used to drive collective human efforts towards addressing othering.

Incommunication, an Essential Concept in Contemporary Political Communication

Communication and incommunication are inseparable, but incommunication is the condition for communication, and can no longer be considered as “the failure of communication”. Incommunication and otherness are complementary for thinking about the difficulties linked to the illusions of the “communication society”. Europe is only a sum of incommunications and only endless negotiations prevent failure, whether about the enlargement process or the incessant resolution of crises. With incommunication, we rediscover the importance of the concept of otherness. Incommunication is an integral part of political construction. To revalue incommunication, and all the contradictory dimensions of history and politics, is to escape the constant devaluation of communication, often reduced to attempts at manipulation, and to legitimize intercomprehension as a modest but essential tool for the organization of debates. Incommunication, negotiation, and translation: three essential concepts to try to manage the question of otherness.

Fictitious Language Games, Otherness, and Philosophy of Education: A View on the Later Wittgenstein

The article combines later Wittgenstein’s fictitious language games, along with the forms of life associated with them, with the concept of otherness and places them both within the philosophy of education. The account of otherness overlaps with the view of fictional language games in that the latter deviates from our ordinary, extant uses of language and our Lebensform, and thus can be perceived as extraordinary, unusual, strange, and sometimes nonsensical. The advantages of dealing with such construed preposterousness rely, first, on its leading to a better understanding of our own form of life; second, on its opening a window on the changing of our form of life; third, on its acquainting us with the other. The educational roles of it are presented, first, as being needed at the very beginning of a child’s language learning, when the learner probes the limits of sense and thus enters the domain of otherness; second, as freeing children from the tyranny of adults’ norms and showing the norms that adults accept as absurd; thirdly, as puzzlement that gives an impulse to our thought development, which occurs in contact with the other. Therefore, it is claimed that Wittgenstein’s later philosophy opens perspectives on educational thinking not only in terms of teacher training (Abrichtung) of the learner to follow the rules of existing practices, but also in terms of imagination and critical attitude towards the existing forms of life.

Sociological Dimensions of Representation: Othering & Stereotyping

This paper investigates into multiple forms and dimensions of representation employed in literary works and public affairs. It is a thorough study of secondary works published on the issues ranging from representation to stereotyping—general to specific sociological practices in writing. The article aims to examine the societal predicaments as depicted in writings and verbal expressions. More than this, the paper uncloaks the dominating temperament of majority community in culturally diverse societal setting. How the minority groups are treated by the socially and culturally privileged community is the corpus of the investigation. The article discusses the concept of representation by Stuart Hall and the concept of othering by Lajos Bronsin order for examining the other forms of representation. The meaning is constructed by the dominant community for underprivileged groups such as people of color in the United States of America, South Asians in the international space, and women in the global phenomena. The generalized views about any sociological category become the stereotypes which stigmatize the community in entirety. The individual drawbacks must not be associated with the distinctive features of a large sociological group as the process becomes unfair and biased.

The Roads of the Others: E. Levinas and T. Adorno

In this article, Levinas’ philosophy is interpreted as an ethical and Talmudic consideration of existential paths. After Auschwitz, the concept of otherness and the diversity of other faces presupposes a free and diverse “being on the road,” an ethics of journey, and denies theodicy and an essentialist interpretation of being. The thesis is proven by comparing Levinas’, Baranova’s and Adorno’s approaches to ethics and Exegesis. Levinas’ philosophy is elaborated by referring to the exegetics of the Exodus and the concept of an incomprehensibility of Auschwitz. The author discusses the philosophies of Levinas and Adorno who both consider the Holocaust as an occurrence not open to interpretation. Levinas advocates the end of theodicy as a justification for divine history and argues the primacy of ethics, while Adorno develops anti-theodicy and presents the relevance of critique of instrumental reason.

A Postcolonial Analysis of Austria’s Political Approach to Islam

This essay examines Austria’s political approaches to Islam between 2011 and 2022 at the interface of political science and religious policy as informed by postcolonial studies. Austrian political approaches to Islam are analyzed through the study of publications, press releases, government and party programmes, as well as laws, all conceptualized as an Islam dispositif. Against the backdrop of a restrictive policy on integration, it is considered that a similar situation exists for political approaches to Islam. In addition to an ambivalence of ideas of openness and restriction, the co-option of right-wing positions taken from the racist far right can be observed, which goes hand in hand with seemingly tolerant speech. The essay shows how on a discoursive level, the civilization and modernization theorem of the Habsburg Monarchy can today be found in the discourse of an Austrian/European form of Islam that stands for progress, enlightenment, and modernity in contrast to adherents of an alleged “political Islam” that represents independent Muslim agency. This idea of “political Islam” is then used to legitimize legal discrimination of Muslims. In all these discourses, Said’s concept of othering acts as a central formation for those in dominant positions to legitimate their position of power.

Thinking on Reality: Metzger and the Rejection of the “Eleatic Postulate”1

Abstract In 1940, Wolfgang Metzger began a profound reflection on the meaning of the phenomenological approach to Gestalt psychology, which had its starting point in the rejection of what he called the “Eleatic” or “Eleatic–Rationalistic Postulate,” that is, the notion that, in his opinion, had dominated Western scientific and philosophical thought of the past centuries, according to which any assertion about the state of things that could lead to self-contradictory conclusions had to be considered unfounded. On the basis of this rejection and with exclusive reference to access to experiential data, Metzger proposed to distinguish five meanings of reality: (1) the physical or experiential world; (2) the intuitive or experienced world; (3) the experienced world (met, Angetroffen) in contrast to the represented world; (4) the something or fullness in contrast to emptiness or nothingness; (5) the real in contrast to the apparent. For Metzger (1950), this concept, although primarily related to perception, has far-reaching implications for our conception of others and of society. We question here the validity of Metzger’s concept, its explanatory significance, and its relation to other phenomenological concepts, such as that of Merleau-Ponty.

역사 원형에서 스토리텔링 이형으로, 블라드 체페슈의 콘텐츠화 연구

Dracula, created in 1897 by Bram Stoker, is a fictional character born based on the legendary figure of Valahia(Walachia) in the 15th century, Vlad Ţepeş, the lord of medieval Romania, and the vampire myth that prevailed throughout Europe in the 19th century. Vlad Ţepeş, a historical real person and cultural archetype, goes through the first transformation process of a novel in the realm of literature, and then spreads around the world through three-dimensional complex arts such as plays and films. And in modern time, thanks to the supply and spread of the internet, it has been expanded and reproduced in accordance with popularization codes of culture such as animation, webtoon, game, and storytelling variants of virtual media. The historical prototype ‘Vlad Ţepeş’ and the cultural content prototype ‘Dracula’ have a completely different concept of otherness(the other) through the fictitious process of novels and films. If Ţepeş is located in the same historical identity defined by awareness, consciousness, and consistency, the otherness of Ţepeş, that is, Dracula, is an existence that is not captured by this consistency, implying the otherness as a supernatural spirituality(eternal life) like a vampire born in the Victorian era. Traditional genres such as novels, movies, and musicals, as well as cartoons and animations based on digital content, games and virtual media also utilize Dracula and its progenitor, Vlad Ţepeş, as the storytelling source of OSMU(One Source Multi Use). Dracula, a fictional entity, has become a legend and a modern myth in the world beyond the borders of Romania, regardless of the intentions of his prototype, Vlad Ţepeş, and is constantly being transformed and created in response to the demands of time and space and the development of internet and virtual media technology.

Unpolicing Childhood: Cultural Approaches to Anti-Child Disciplinary Violence in the Elementary Setting

Nineteenth century western beliefs about race and gender ushered in the concept of othering, in which non-white individuals were viewed and treated as subhuman and dangerous. Concurrently, the shifting concept of childhood buttressed the notion that innocence and purity were qualities most associated with and demonstrated by children from the dominant culture. As organizations tend to reflect societal values, beliefs and fears, school became a major institution designed to mold children into responsible and moral citizens. This symbolic social contract between society and school has come to reinforce childism--a form of oppression against children who have been othered. We assert that in schools, childism is evidenced as anti-Blackness and anti-Black child sexism. In this paper, we examine childism and share the narratives of Black elementary educators who resisted anti-Black childism and disrupted disciplinary violence in the elementary setting with cultural approaches.