anil bhatti

Das Interessante [...] ist, dass der lyrische Teil des Divans einen kulturhistorisch die Zeit transzendierenden utopischen Schwebezustand zwischen Ost und West inszeniert, welcher in kognitiver Spannung zum Ertrag des im Rahmen des Kolonialismus angehäuften Wissens über den Orient steht. Aus dieser Spannung entsteht die charakteristische Ambivalenz des deutschen Sonderwegs im Zusammenhang mit dem Orientalismus. Damit wird die ambivalente Stellung des deutschen Orientalismus auch am Divan deutlich. Die Spannung im Divan bedeutet, dass das Werk als Modell für Dialog und Verständnis zwischen Orient und Okzident gelesen werden kann, und es kann auch als utopischer Entwurf für den grenzüberwindenden Umgang mit fremden kulturellen Möglichkeiten gedeutet werden. Im Folgenden werden einige Aspekte davon behandelt

Ähnlich wie Robert Musils Kakanien sollte auch das postkoloniale Indien als ein Land des »Sowohl als auch u(nd) des Weder noch« gedacht werden. Statt der aristotelischen Logik des »Entweder-oder« sollte eine Art dialektischer Logik helfen, der Komplexität der geschichtlichen Entwicklung Indiens gerecht zu werden. Auf dem günstigen Boden eines säkularen Staats sollten die Traditionen von kultureller Toleranz, kommunikativer Mehrsprachigkeit und religiösem Synkretismus wieder ihren gerechten Platz bekommen, nachdem die Epistemologie des Kolonialismus die Komplexität Indiens als Chaos begriffen hatte und durch Grenzziehungen in allen lebensweltlichen Bereichen ›Homogenisierung‹ als identitätsstiftenden Wert erfunden und als handlungsbestimmend installiert hatte. Das säkulare Projekt war, wie wir wissen, eine Utopie, deren Charme durch den Angriff auf sie eher erhöht als vermindert wird. Sie lebt im fundamentalistisch geprägten Indien im ironischen Modus zwar weiter, aber der konzentrie...

Nach dem Ende Jugoslawiens bleibt Indien der 'Testfall' dafür, daß ethnische, religiöse und sprachliche Vielfalt mit dem Konzept eines einheitlichen Staates kompatibel ist. Dies rechtfertigt Überlegungen zum Problem der Homogenität und Heterogenität im postkolonialen Umfeld und den Rückgriff auf die indische Kulturdiskussion aus der Zeit der antikolonialen Bewegung. Postkoloniales Denken wird dabei begriffen als widersprüchliches Ensemble von Haltungen zum Prozeßcharakter von Kulturen. Ihr Reflexionsfeld umfaßt plurikulturelle, multilinguale, multireligiöse und multiethnische Zusammenhänge

There are many aspects of Haas' life and experiences in India which deserve greater attention. I would like to refer briefly only to his attempts as a litterateur to come to terms with 'India' as presented in his autobiographical recollection and to some comparative cultural reflections in his essays. Like all reconstructions his autobiographical recollection of India is also a construct in which the site of India as a place of exile is justified by an achieved awareness between conscious individual choice and inevitability. An individual acts out a personal history, the prefiguration of which he only becomes aware of in the form of a subsequent epiphanic realization. Given Haas' literary background, it is not surprising that this is articulated through a literary association

alternative approach in Cultural Studies, as compared to the hitherto dominant paradigm of ‘difference’. The concepts of identity and otherness are becoming ever-more questionable, not least due to global political events of the last few decades. The assumption of distinct cultural identities in an era of postmodern migratory flows seems increasingly inadequate. Though the postcolonial critique of identity has emphasized alterity and hybridity, this has remained within the paradigm of difference as an overall perspective. For these reasons, it is important not only to discuss, but also to reflect upon whether a concept of similarity, which offers an alternative way of examining our complex cultural world, can be developed alongside a concept of difference. The essays presented in this volume come from literary and cultural studies, from philosophy, political science, sociology, ethnology and history. They are arranged according to their systematic perspectives: the first part of the...

This paper outlines a proposed project on the concept of »similarities«. While difference, alterity and identity have until recently dominated the theory and practice of cultural studies, the alternative, complementary tradition of thinking on similarities, and deriving a secular social practice based on this, has been insufficiently examined for its relevance in contemporary, complex societies. This project envisages an historical reexamination of the traditions of thinking about similarities in various fields relevant to cultural studies. The paper argues that increasing attention to the question of »similarities« is important for dealing with pluricultural situations and societies characterized by migration, multilingualism, and overlapping traditions which require a flexible conceptual approach and an openness to an asymmetric narrative of modernity.

... Durch die Gefähr-dung und Relativierung des säkularen Diskurses wird die mehrsprachige, multikulturelle Landschaft Indiens parzelliert. Diese angeblich autochthone Bewegung erfüllt damit paradoxerweise eine Forderung europäischer Kolo-nialideologie, die im amorphen ...

Fascism in Europe, exile in India. This is a relatively unexplored area of cultural, historical and literary research. The history of emigration of anti-fascist writers, scholars and artists -- most of whom were of Jewish and minority origins -- from Central Europe, especially Germany, to North and South America and other parts of the Western world as well as the former Soviet Union is well documented. Work has also been carried out on exile in non-European centres like Shanghai. Less well known is the fact that during the period of fascist rule in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, a number of Central European emigrants moved to India. This emigration movement and the varied histories of the emigres themselves have so far been largely neglected in the historiography of Central European Jewish and anti-fascist exile.

The concept of »similarity« lies at the centre of this interview with Anil Bhatti. Distinguishing itself from a culturalistic hermeneutic of the familiar and the strange, it concentrates on the »as-well-as«, on the area »between« theories of difference and such aspects of identity. Through the notions of »translation« and »over-lapping«, of »the vague« and »the preliminary« this concept seeks to ameliorate cultural theory.

... Durch die Gefähr-dung und Relativierung des säkularen Diskurses wird die mehrsprachige, multikulturelle Landschaft Indiens parzelliert. Diese angeblich autochthone Bewegung erfüllt damit paradoxerweise eine Forderung europäischer Kolo-nialideologie, die im amorphen ...

The idea that the concept of 'similarity' could offer a new, alternative approach to cultural studies arose from preliminary discussions between scholars in India (New Delhi) and Germany (Konstanz, Tübingen). 1 Following these discussions, different conceptions of similarity were considered by scholars from diverse disciplines within the framework of three conferences, supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Excellence Cluster 16: 'Cultural Foundations of Integration' at the University of Konstanz, and the Institute of German Studies and the Forum Scientiarum at the University of Tübingen. This volume is a collection of the contributions and papers that emerged from these conferences. This volume does not seek to present a comprehensive history of similarity or of ideas about similarity. Not only would this require a review of the entirety of philosophical history from Aristotle to Nelson Goodman, it would also demand a survey of many other academic fields in which related concepts, such as mimicry, mimesis, analogy, assimilation and imitation, play central roles; in other words, it would require an overview of knowledge traditions as diverse as art history and psychology, as well as cognitive science and biology. Instead, this collection seeks to introduce and to explore important and exemplary interpretations of similarity for cultural studies research. The essays presented here thus stem from the relevant disciplines of literary and cultural studies, but also from philosophy, political science, sociology, ethnology and history. The essays are arranged according to their systematic perspectives: the first part of the book deals with conceptual attempts to establish the relevance of similarity for cultural studies research, while the second part is devoted to testing different models of application.

I It is a truism to say that a systematic Marxist Aesthetics does not exist. Instead we have something much more productive and relevant for our times. A series of interlinked expressions of concerns and debates all of which try to establish a connection between artistic production and political commitment based on an integral view of the liberation of humankind from the oppressive incompleteness of the present.