Contradicting Contradiction. Knowledge Production and the Pluriversal Turn

Dr. Deborah Nyangulu (RTG Contradiction Studies)

01/23/2024 2:30 pm 4:00 pm

U Bremen GRA 2 0030 & online

In my presentation I will draw on different examples to show how contradiction is a plural noun and a polysemous word. I will argue that rejecting the pluralism of contradiction functions (i) as a strategy gatekeep knowledge and (ii) as a means by those who desire dominance to enforce conformity. I will conclude by showing the implications of my argument on knowledge production at a time when decolonial thininkers, notably from the Latin American school of thought, are using the concept of the pluriverse to explore the co-existence of multiple worlds and realities.

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l’illusion d’une unité

“Foucault speaks of contradiction as l’illusion d’une unité.”

Ingo H. Warnke
decolonial scholarship

“Creating decentralizing and decolonizing scholarship on contradiction, contradictory phenomena, and contradicting processes is a challenging task.”

Kerstin Knopf
earthing

“Geography as a discipline stands for a certain worlding, if not earthing, of contradiction, in both theoretical and pracitcal respect.”

Julia Lossau
power and resistance

“Michel Foucault says: “Where there is power, there is resistance, and […] this resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relation to power” (History of Sexuality I, The Will to Knowledge, 1976, p. 95)”

Gisela Febel
limits

“Resistance is a democratic right, sometimes a duty. With literature we can find models for this right and think about its limits.”

Gisela Febel