CFP

[Dr Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe]

CFP: Derrida's Indian Philosophical Subtext (29 Feb. 2004, Collection)

Papers are invited for a special issue (August 2004) of the online,
peer-reviewed journal _Consciousness, Literature and the Arts_ on Derrida's
Indian philosophical subtext:

This special issue is intended to investigate the dissemination of Indian
philosophy into European post-Enlightenment thought (particularly Derrida).
Whilst Derrida pays a token acknowledgement to the influence of the "Indo"
in so-called European thought, he does not fully acknowledge its influence
in the concepts articulated as his: supplement, duty, hospitality.  Although
several prominent critics (Bhatt, Bernasconi) have recently begun to
investigate the racism in Enlightenment thought, particularly in recent
issues of the journal Radical Philosophy, even this field of thought
(deconstructing individual European philosophers as imbricated in the
discursive field of colonialism/racism, thereby tracing a trend in
Enlightenment Humanist thought presaged in England by Robert JC Young, White
Mythologies, 1990) is fairly recent. The sudden spurt in deconstructing the
exclusive biases of humanism ought to be paralleled by research in ancient
Indian texts and how they have influenced, albeit in an unacknowledged way,
the work of the prominent "French" philosopher, Jacques Derrida.  Although
several "disciples" of Derrida exist, notably the so-called "Indian"
postcolonial critic, Gayatri Spivak, not one seems to have realized that
Derrida's sources come from the ancient Indian sub-continent.  This special
issue of Consciousness, Literature, and the Arts is devoted to the
unraveling of Derrida's conceptual inspiration (his "savoir") by tracing it
to the original sources that Western philosophy is still reluctant to fully
acknowledge.

Please email your abstracts (500-800 words) to W. Haney
(whaney at ausharjah.edu) and to Dimple Godiwala (DimpleGodiwala at aol.com) by 29
Feb. 2004.  Notification of acceptance will be made by 15 Mar. 2004.
Completed papers will be due by 30 June 2004.

Dimple Godiwala
Senior Lecturer
School of Arts
York St. John (A College of the University of Leeds)

W. Haney
Prof. of English
American University of Sharjah
United Arab Emirates