1. Alterity

2. Alterity
The study of Alterity (i.e.of Otherness) has become recently a very popular branch of knowledge (in anthropology, psychology, comparative literature)
It attempts to see how a hegemonic culture or gender group views different or subaltern ones as exotic or inferior or just plain alien.
A groundbreaking study in the field was Edward Said’s Orientalism

3. The Study of Alterity as a Challenge to Hegemonic Thinking
Understanding how images of the Other are created and to what purposes they are used challenges idea of the superiority or inferiority of a civilisation.
It is a way to challenge hegemonic strategies, a liberation movement of the mind)
It is a consequence of Deconstruction which points out relativity of such concepts as “good” “normal” etc. (theorist Foucault)
It is the basis for actual and military liberation movements which have achieved the political end to hegemony. (theorist Frantz Fanon)

4. Detecting examples of Otherness internal to a society
Others as linguistic groups
Others as physically different
Handicapped people
Racially different people
Others as gender groups
Women
Gay and lesbian
Others as social groups
Foreigners
People of other religions
People distinguished by census or class

5. Detecting examples of Otherness external to a society
Other nations
Other religions
Especially natives in countries “discovered” by Europeans

6. How have Others been dealt with?
Persecution, deportation e.g. genocides, the Shoah, pogroms,
Enslavement, colonization
Emargination, e.g. ghettoes, apartheid, exclusion from education, jobs
Victimization, e.g. witch hunts, public punishments

7. Othering through language
Polarities
Stereotyping
Name calling
Ridiculing linguistic expression of Others
Ignoring artistic expression of Others
Imposing literary, artistic canons
Exoticism

8. Dealing with the Challenge of Otherness
Decolonization, reterritorialization, economic aid, challenge to new colonialism
Liberation movements have achieved the political end to hegemony. (theorist Frantz Fanon)
Multiculturalism
Political correctness,
New Age, alternative medicine

9. Dealing with Otherness in Literature
The critical movement of Deconstruction has taken up this challenge intellectually (a Liberation movement of the mind)
Breaking up of the canon,
Postcolonial literature, ethnic studies,
Cultural studies,
Feminist studies
Imagological studies