Narratives are the starting point for every form of change, at the same time they provide an essential basis for maintaining normative structures. An ever-increasing number of competing narratives are complicating the understanding not only of the so-called present, but also of the past(s) and possible futures. These sometimes challenging (in the sense of contradictory) narratives of the world open up the possibility as well as the necessity of rethinking one's own narratives along with their underlying situatedness and mediality, especially in mutual exchange. How are image and text constellated in order to challenge narratives that affirm norms (canon critique, colonialism, etc.)? The panel will focus on the plasticity of memory and the access to images that constitute or question it.

Speakers

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Debates on Postcolonial Studies and Anti-Semitism: A (german) controversy without conflict?
Andrea Geier

How are “postcolonialism”, “postcolonial theory”, and “postcolonial studies” discussed in public? In my lecture, I will examine the communicative dynamics within academia, in the public sphere, and in politics, focusing on the accusation that postcolonial studies are ideological and anti-Semitic. I will show which understanding of science is revealed in this discourse and what effects it has when an entire field of research is considered “controversial” and “disputed” in public media communication in this way. At the same time, I want to argue that it is not enough to reflexively fend off attacks or issue general appeals for solidarity in support of academic freedom. Rather, I want to highlight which aspects of the defamatory conflict communication in the public discourse are worthy of self-reflection and self-criticism—and I want to ask how we can make these aspects visible in public communication in the context of heated, polarized debates. How can we find common ground in this conflict communication? 

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Dwelling in the space of awe – Narrative constellations as constructive elements in philosophical critique
Judith-Frederike Popp

The talk discusses a couple of methodological implications resulting from philosophy in general and Critical Theory in particular tending to oscillate between prosaic and poetic actualizations of language. The first half focuses on narrative constellations as materializations of poetic language and discusses them as textual mediations of theory formation. In the process, the latter gains shape as practice of skilled walking on shaky foundations both from both an inner- and interdisciplinary perspective, building on similarities between philosophical and psychoanalytical approaches. The second half of the talk follows the hypothesis that anchoring philosophical activity in poetic oscillations taking up the instability of being confronted with the non-conceptual uncovers a willingness to not only tolerate said instability but to dwell in light of material resistance, withdrawal and inconceivability as epistemic instrument. In the end, it is argued that the practice of dwelling facilitated by narrative constellations constitutes a space in which philosophical critique can be realized beyond a strict dichotomy between affirmation and negation. Instead, the practice of critique appears as dialogical dynamic of carrying on that is sustained not by explicit normative regulation alone but also by an undercurrent of experiential connection and affective grip.

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The Marrano as a Figure of Thought: An Experimental Reading of Adorno’s Negative Dialectics
Stephanie Graf

At first sight, Theodor W. Adorno and Gershom Scholem might appear to stand at opposite poles of twentieth-century Jewish thought: the Marxist and materialist dialectician on the one hand, and the Zionist historian of Jewish mysticism on the other. However, from their first encounter, they were drawn to one another’s work by a cautious fascination. Their correspondence reveals the surprising core around which this unlikely alliance evolved: mystical antinomianism. Its structural core can be described as the Marrano dimension—that is, a retrospective theological elaboration of the experience of forced conversion: the crypto-Jewish practice of disguising opposition to the hegemonic system in the “garments” of that very order. Inspired by recent attempts to trace a Marrano epistemology in modern philosophical approaches, this paper proposes the Marrano as a figure of thought underlying Theodor W. Adorno’s own philosophical movement, namely Negative Dialectics.