Conference paper
Fleeing the Self in Pursuit of the Other
Proceedings of the 1997 Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, pp.1-18
Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference: Researching Education in New Times, 1997 (Brisbane, Australia, 30-Nov-1997–04-Dec-1997)
Australian Association for Research in Education
1997
Abstract
Philosophers, feminists and postcolonial theorists cast radical doubt on our ability to see it and tell it like it is. Exploring the uncertainties of our sceptical New Times, this paper focuses on the Self / Other distinction in academic discourse. Like the desire for authenticity, the pursuit of the Other is a common truth-production manoeuvre. In combination with the flight from our-Selves, it legitimises certain questions about the Other and avoids others about the Self. Perhaps more importantly, it fails to take seriously the implications of the politics of self-representation that may be tactically deployed by Others.Assumptions of epistemic privilege and practices of epistemic violence are key features of academic discourse. Their dynamics are examined in a discussion of two incidents. One concerns a group of Anglo-Australian drama students who wanted to play Aboriginal characters, and the other relates to the time an Anglo-Australian writer masqueraded as a Ukrainian.Despite the confusions and dilemmas of our representational practices I suggest that there important things to be done. First we can support the struggle to get real non-white others into the spaces marked by their absence and second we can scrutinise the limits of what we can know.
Details
- Title
- Fleeing the Self in Pursuit of the Other
- Authors
- Julie M Matthews (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- Publication details
- Proceedings of the 1997 Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, pp.1-18
- Conference details
- Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference: Researching Education in New Times, 1997 (Brisbane, Australia, 30-Nov-1997–04-Dec-1997)
- Publisher
- Australian Association for Research in Education
- Date published
- 1997
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 1997 The Authors. Reproduced here with permission of the publisher.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99448752702621
- Output Type
- Conference paper
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