Hakluyt
01-01-2006, 04:38 PM
Tomislav Longinovic
Eurozine
The post-oriental condition
Serbs and Turks revisited
The Balkans and Turkey are a space on the borders of Europe marking a cultural encounter with the oriental. Constituted as an undeclared enemy, this object of anxiety acts as a catalyst for collective cohesion, eliciting mythic narratives calling for exclusion from the symbolic realm of the European community.
...
Deconstructing Carl Schmitt's authoritarian political position, Jacques Derrida writes: "Defending Europe against Islam, [in Carl Schmitt] considered as a non-European invader of Europe, is then more than a war among other wars, more than a political war. Indeed, strictly speaking, this would be not a war but a combat with the political at stake, a struggle for politics."[9] It seems that the oriental threatens the end of politics and a submission to a struggle closer to the natural law, a power so alien that it threatens Europe as a sign of modernity and democracy. Europe is a fortress justified in excluding and subduing the oriental within.
Lots more: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-12-30-longinovic-en.html
Eurozine
The post-oriental condition
Serbs and Turks revisited
The Balkans and Turkey are a space on the borders of Europe marking a cultural encounter with the oriental. Constituted as an undeclared enemy, this object of anxiety acts as a catalyst for collective cohesion, eliciting mythic narratives calling for exclusion from the symbolic realm of the European community.
...
Deconstructing Carl Schmitt's authoritarian political position, Jacques Derrida writes: "Defending Europe against Islam, [in Carl Schmitt] considered as a non-European invader of Europe, is then more than a war among other wars, more than a political war. Indeed, strictly speaking, this would be not a war but a combat with the political at stake, a struggle for politics."[9] It seems that the oriental threatens the end of politics and a submission to a struggle closer to the natural law, a power so alien that it threatens Europe as a sign of modernity and democracy. Europe is a fortress justified in excluding and subduing the oriental within.
Lots more: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-12-30-longinovic-en.html