Swój / obcy / inny. Kontynuacja

The range of issues related to this subject is very wide, while belonging to the group of most basic philosophical, sociological and anthropological contemporary questions. The list of texts concerning this matter grows as well. In the beginning, I would like to define the detailed aspects of the above-mentioned topic. First issue is the anthropological category of fellow/alien, closeness/openness etc., accompanied by the reflection on the category of the border, transition, transgression, taboo etc. Practically, it may also mean the reflection on the experience of (e)migration. Second issue, related with the first one, is the category of identity that transits the reflection on the level of sociology, anthropology, interactivity etc. due to the fact that such reflection is the effect of the collision with the stranger. Third issue concerns the subjective category of being strangers to ourselves, what was signalled by Kristeva in her book (the German title) Fremde sind wir uns selbst. The fourth issue concerns the Other and the otherness, perceived in a way that Lévinas laid it down; it means a certain specific cognitive attitude and the ethical aspects of successful Meeting, what - as is well known - was discussed as the utopian assumption, with no possibility to implement, understood too idealistically (this point will be not discussed). The fifth issue might concern specific category of colonialism or post-colonialism, all forms of domination that bases on - variously defined - conviction of superiority (Said, Thompson, Bhabha), the dialectic of fascination and rejection of alien culture, what is well noticeable in the texts of Rushdie, Derrida, Said etc. The issue I particularly want to examine is most closely related to the one mentioned above. It concerns crossing the cultural borders, language anchorages and complications - what may be demonstrated on some examples taken from the field of the literature and essay.

Miłosz Markiewicz