Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 11:45:07 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Subject: Re: "new universalism"


Not as if "we" were Quebecois but as if "I" were Quebecois. It is a
question of reconfiguring a personal moral code.
terry

Terry Goldie
English Department
York University
North York, Ontario
Canada
M3J 1P3
voice: 416-604-3670
fax: 416-736-5412
email: tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca

On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, Lisa Anne McNee wrote:

> Terry, what is the sense in trying to imagine what we would think if we
> *were* Quebecois? We aren't, so we can't really know what it is to be
> Quebecois. Putting yourself in the other person's shoes only goes so far. I
> think it is more sensible to simply listen to what people in that position
> are saying, and attempt to sort it out in a Bakhtinian way (listening to the
> heteroglossia of competing discourses). It is just as silly to think that
> the Other produces one unified position as the Same does--that Manichean
> thinking just doesn't work. In reality, postcolonial societies are fraught
> with internal conflict, as are ex-metropolitan societies. Lisa
> 
> 
> ----------
> >From: terry goldie <tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca>
> >To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >Subject: "new universalism"
> >Date: Wed, Aug 16, 2000, 9:56 AM
> >
> 
> >Sounds like the old universalism to me. The "white man's burden" was based
> >on moral assumptions which were claimed to be ethical. Attacks on
> >multinational capital's use of underpaid workers are based on moral
> >assumptions which are claimed to be ethical. I would much rather deal with
> >an approach based on a stated moral code. The problem with that is it
> >seems either imperialist ("We in the west know what is good for you") or
> >else dangerously subservient ("What do you want us to do Mr. Mugabe?"). My
> >policy, at times absurd, is to ask, "What would be the moral code of
> >someone like me in that position?" To bring it close to home, the result
> >is while as a Canadian I don't like the idea of Quebec sovereignty, I
> >realize that if I were Quebecois I would likely support it, so I support
> >it.
> >terry
> >
> >Terry Goldie
> >English Department
> >York University
> >North York, Ontario
> >Canada
> >M3J 1P3
> >voice: 416-604-3670
> >fax: 416-736-5412
> >email: tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
> 
> 
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> 



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