The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house: decolonising intercultural communication

ABSTRACT

The issue of representation has polarised public discourse and in recent years the decolonisation of research methodologies has entered the field of interculturality. However, universalistic discourses of dialogue and tolerance can be harnessed to silence certain voices by construing them as ‘other'. With this paper I confront this conceptual knot of representation and I recognise the role of epistemic violence in speaking for ‘the other’. I employ the idea of minor literature to counteract non-perfomative and tokenistic displays of diversity that appropriate the word intercultural and use it as a form of currency in neo-liberal academia.

La questione della rappresentazione ha polarizzato il discorso pubblico e negli ultimi anni la decolonizzazione delle metodologie di ricerca ha investito il campo dell'intercultura. Tuttavia, discorsi universalistici di dialogo e tolleranza possono in realta' silenziare certe voci costruendole come ‘altre'. Con questo articolo affronto questo nodo concettuale e riconosco il ruolo della violenza epistemica quando si da voce all''altro'. A questo scopo, utilizzo il concetto di letteratura minore contro dimostrazioni non-perfomative di diversita' che si appropriano della parola ‘intercultura' e la usano come una forma di scambio nell’accademia neo-liberista.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural translation
• intercultural communication
• minor literature
• difference
• embodiment

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giuliana Ferri

Giuliana Ferri is a senior lecturer in education at Brunel University London. Her research in intercultural communication has explored the framing of otherness and the notion of competence from a philosophical perspective. Giuliana has published Intercultural Communication: Critical Approaches and Future Challenges for Palgrave Macmillan.