On the (Im)possible Relation Between the Universal and the Relative: The Aporia of Community

Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne (Lead / Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

‘British values’ have recently been invoked by the Right in Britain – both in the Conservative Party and outside by the Reform Party led by the Right insurgent and public school educated (Dulwich College) ‘man of the people’ Nigel Farage. Such values are directed at communities of colour, as well as those communities that stand apart from the logic of ‘phallologentricism’. Factions of the secular Left too have engaged in an iteration of ‘culture wars’ by targeting Jewish communities who may not share Hamas’s desire to eradicate Israel in favour of a monistic Palestinian State. At the heart of these contested cultural terrains is an overarching issue: namely, the question of the universal, and how the universal informs the States’ politics of representation (the “General Will”, the “nation”, “citizen” etc…). Derrida reminds us that “the social” – let alone the State and the polity it brings to life – can never be reduced to a single meaning, that the nature of community will always be subject to contestation contra the telos of monism.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPólemos - Journal of Law, Literature and Culture
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Sept 2024

Keywords

  • 'British Values'
  • community
  • Derrida
  • immanence
  • being-with
  • différance

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