Week 3 19.10.09

Of the three articles we have been asked to read so far for this module ‘The Politics of Amnesia’ by Terry Eagleton is the one I am least comfortable writing about. I felt immediately alienated by the opening paragraph making reference to the late and great philosophers of our time of which I recognise the names and little more.

My gut feeling is that this article is somewhat sensationalist. I find it hard to believe that university libraries are full of ‘young Turks deep in incest and cyber-feminism’ or that middle class students are ‘at work on... subjects like vampirism and eye-gouging, cyborgs and porno movies’. I checked our library and they weren’t.

I found the tone of the piece to be confrontational, provocative, the voice of someone saying something to enjoy the reaction. It left me cold. It did however contain a valid description of the role of theory in relation to colonialism and developing countries. The writing on this topic (page eight onwards) was very revealing of the hypocrisies which accompany the politics of revolution, post colonialism and the establishment of new regimes. For me, I can never shake of the suspicion that theory and philosophy is a tool for the post rationalisation of events/phenomena that are non-rational, organic and difficult to generalise due to the complexities of specifics. What does this theoretical analysis achieve? It does reveal certain amusing statements and conclusions (I particularly like the bit on page 21 which describes how unpopular it is to be white and western but that having a shared identity with a marginal group helps to alleviate this, I find Irish relatives particularly useful for this purpose), it is also useful in developing theoretical and/or political argument. However in terms of overall gain the jury is still out. Perhaps I am of the new wave of theoreticians more concerned with the minutiae of everyday life and the discussion of specific fact than grandiose classical approaches. If this is the case then my ignorance of Lacan and Barthes may not only be fashionable but also to my advantage?