Multiculturalism, Identity Formation,and the Nomadic Ethics －A Deleuzean Perspective on the Contemporary Deliberative Democracy－

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

During the last 20 years the multicultural theorists achieved quite a lot but their discourses presently appear to have turned a full circle. Perhaps, it may be too early to say that multiculturalism has reached its end. From my theoretical standpoint of view, however, this claim is not without ground. This paper casts a doubt on the multiculturalism’s common assumption that one can find a definite cultural identity in an individual, a group or in a political community in this increasingly hybridizing world. Nevertheless, if we still want to keep the multi- culturalist term ‘cultural identity’ intact, then we should first admit that it cannot be a homogeneous entity but an overlapping multiple whole which seems to betray the multiculturalism’s basic position of cultural coherence specific to a cultural body. This constitutes a need to think over the concept of cultural identity, its formation and representation in a new theoretical light.
Hence, I venture out first to diagnose some theoretical predicaments of the present multicultural discourses and then try to rescue them from their present cul-de-sac. In order to do so, I have decided to adopt such Deleuzean concepts as difference, repetition, and nomadic thinking with the help of the two prominent Deleuzean theorists, Judith Butler and Rosie Braidotti. In my view, they appear to provide food for a new type of multicultural thinking, that is composed of an anti-essentialist multicultural discourse and a nomadic ethics for the contemporary deliberative democracy.
In conclusion, I argue that this anti-essentialist multiculturalism shares a common reasoning with the existing multicultural discourses that cultural differences should be paid due respect and that any discrimination or social injustice caused by them should be eliminated or overcome by virtue of public deliberation. Nevertheless, it differs sharply from those discourses on the point that it purposefully focuses on the nature of political agency which denies the preexisting fixed identity while accepting the political effect of performativity in public deliberation where a kind of nomadic ethics centered on the common category of the human would beconstituted in the cause of social justice.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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