Reading in Critical Intimacy: Friendship versus Trashing

Mieke Bal, Cultural theorist and critic Video artist

This seminar considers Friendship as a pedagogy and a practice in critical/postcolonial studies. The presentation takes its starting point in the very negative review by Terry Eagleton of Gayatri Spivak’s A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999) and asks the question: how can the teacher and scholar think differently about the very purpose of teaching, academic writing, (peer) reviewing, or seminar exchange? What does it mean to consider and practice Friendship or Critical Intimacy when teaching and when participating in any academic conversation? How can Friendship help us think about knowledge as being produced not by learning about, but by learning from? In preparation for the seminar, please see the attached section from Bal’s Travelling Concepts (2002). You may also want to look at Eagleton’s review.

All most welcome!