Universalism & reparation. A Conversation with David Scott (Columbia, New York)
For the eighth conversation in our series, we spoke with anthropologist David Scott about postcoloniality, utopia, and cultural practices as a prism for reflecting upon questions of universality. Starting from the question of what happened to the promise of freedom after 1989 and to anti-colonial utopias, David Scott argues that these promises have failed, and that understanding the reasons for this failure must provide the basis for repairing and refashioning our future. Drawing on different perspectives - philosophical, socio-cultural and literary - we first discussed how to think about universality from a situated position, or how to conduct research in post-colonial spaces. Then, using the concept of an "ethic of generosity", Scott elaborates on how such an ethic can inform contemporary cultural politics and the questioning of identity and difference. Refocusing the importance of style and form for intellectual traditions and artistic practice, the conversation ends with a reflection on the past and the future: how can we link literature, postcolonial history and tragedy, so as to avoid fatalism and open up new possibilities of our societies? Does this involve revolution or reparation?
David Scott is the Ruth and William Lubic Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. He is the founder and editor of the journal Small Axe, and director of the Small Axe Project. Besides, he has curated a number of exhibitions, including The Visual Life of Social Affliction (Nassau, Miami, Rotterdam, 2019, 2020) and Pressure: The Kingston Biennial 2022 (Kingston 2022). His publication includes Formations of Ritual (1994), Refashioning Futures (1999), Conscripts of Modernity (2004), Omens of Adversity (2014), and Stuart Hall’s Voice: Intimation of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity (2017), and (with Orlando Patterson) The Paradox of Freedom: A Biographical Dialogue (2023). His new book, Irreparable Evil: An Essay in Moral and Reparatory History will be published in 2024. He is currently working on a biography of Stuart Hall.
Chapter subtitles
0:00:00 introduction
0:00:20 postcolonial nightmares and utopia
0:12:18 intellectual biography and sense of displacement
0:22:06 researching in a post-Bandung era
0:34:23 identity & “ethics of generosity”
0:43:39 intellectual traditions and cultural institutions
0:53:57 epistolary culture and form
1:03:34 history writing and literary theory
1:28:48 consciousness, repair, and revolution
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“Minor Universality: Narrative World Productions After Western Universalism” is a transdisciplinary research project based at the Saarland University and funded by the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant).
Principal Investigator: Prof Markus Messling
Project team: Elsie Cohen, M.A., Azyza Deiab, Dr Franck Hofmann, Clément Ndé Fongang, M.A., Dr Hélène Thiérard, Dr Jonas Tinius
www.uni-saarland.de/forschen/minor-universality.html