[Download] "To be Or Not to be Modern?" by Journal of Literary Studies * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: To be Or Not to be Modern?
- Author : Journal of Literary Studies
- Release Date : January 01, 2002
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 206 KB
Description
Summary Contemporary French philosophers typically characterise modern Western thought as an egocentric assimilation of the Other by the Self, Similar to Western thought's reductive relationship towards alterity, the relationship between Europe and Africa is, more often than not, seen as an asymmetric one of Europeanisation. The ethical dilemma being addressed in this essay concerns a possible way of interacting with the Other without necessarily violating or reducing its alterity. An ethical appeal demands a response, for ignoring the appeal and remaining silent amounts to "murdering" the Other. However, a response necessarily amounts to a violation. A critical analysis of two discourses on postcolonial Africa is conducted to address this dilemma: a political and urbanistic discourse. The first is that of the South African president, Thabo Mbeki's briefing on the implementation of the Millennium Africa Renaissance Programme (MAP) at the World Economic Forum held on 28 January 2001. The urbanistic discourse is a study on the Nigerian city of Lagos performed by "The Harvard Design School Project" (HPC). Using a "comparative methodology" these two discourses are critically analysed in an effort to find an alternative African modernity, an ethical alternative that leaves the alterity of the Other intact.