Event

Title: Ancient Wandering and Permanent Temporariness

Abstract: To move towards an understanding of displacement from within, and the forms of its overcoming, the paper will bring into dialogue the ancient experience of wandering and the 21st century condition of permanent temporariness. It will explore whether these are the same or different phenomena. And whether the latter is a uniquely modern experience. In particular, it is interested in the turning points that lead to defiance of the condition and its regime. It will trace modes of existence that subvert the liminal state and allow for possibilities of living beyond the present moment, through splintered returns and futures. Such actions, it will be argued, allow for the repositioning of the self in relation to the world, and thus the exposition of cracks within the status quo. The exploration will engage current responses to de-placement by those who have experience of the condition firsthand, especially of refugee camps in Europe and the Middle East, with ancient discourses of the outcast, as experienced by Medea, Xenophon and such philosophers as Diogenes the Cynic. In so doing, it seeks to expose the way seemingly exceptional forms of politics  and existence, instead, reveal themselves as society’s systemic edge.

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