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Lecture Series: 'The Global South goes North': Von "négritude" (Césaire, Senghor) zur "raison nègre" (Mbembe)

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Jochen Mecke (Regensburg) explores how the reappropriation of once derogatory concepts can lead to a reconfiguration not only of relations between black and white populations, but also of the relations of Global North and Global South.

'The Global South goes North': Von "négritude" (Césaire, Senghor) zur "raison nègre" (Mbembe)

Sowohl die Bewegung der négritude als auch die raison nègre bezeichnen zunächst eine räumlich im globalen Süden lokalisierte kulturelle Identität, die ganz bewusst eurozentrische Zuschreibungen benutzt, wie zum Beispiel den abwertenden Begriff des „nègre“, um diesen gegen die kolonialen Kulturen des globalen Norden zu wenden und eine eigenständige, gleichwertige kulturelle Identität zu behaupten. Im Vortrag soll der Weg von dieser Konzeption einer räumlich auf den Global South festgelegten Identität zu jener Form der Ausdehnung des Begriffs auf den Global North untersucht werden, die Achille Mbembe in seinen Schriften vorgenommen und damit nicht nur den Begriff der négritude, sondern auch das Verhältnis zwischen Globalen Süden und Globalem Norden neu gedacht hat.

The Global South goes North: From “négritude“ (Césaire, Senghor) to “raison nègre“ (Mbembe)

Both the négritude and raison nègre movements are explored here as cultural identities that are spatially located in the Global South and make conscious use of the Eurocentric ascriptions, including the derogatory term "nègre", in order to turn them against the colonial cultures of the Global North and subsequently stake a claim for an autonomous cultural identity of equal standing. This lecture will explore the journey of an idea that has travelled from the conception of spatially-defined identity located in the Global South to its expansion into the Global North, as manifested in the writings of Achille Mbembe that not only reconceptualized the concept of négritude, but also the relationship between the Global South and the Global North.

Jochen Mecke has been Professor for Romance Philology at the University of Regensburg since 1996. He completed his Habilitation at the University of Heidelberg and his PhD at Mannheim. His research focuses on Spanish and French literature, film and culture. He is director of Forschungszentrum Spanien (Research Centre on Spain) in Regensburg and was speaker of the CITAS Executive Board until December 2018. He is a member of the Leibniz ScienceCampus Board of Directors.

When?  Thursday, 15 July 2021, 18:15 CET

Where?  Online via Zoom, https://uni-regensburg.zoom.us/j/69616083914, Meeting ID: 696 1608 3914

The lecture series "Rethinking Area Studies and Space from the 'Global South'? Post/Colonial Perspectives and Glocal Challenges" offers a multiperspectival reconceptualization of area studies and relevant concepts of space in dialog with the 'Global South'. It is organized together with CITAS. Find the full programm here.

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