The Critical Practice of Counterpoint: Reading Edward Said Against Liberal Narcissism

• Department of History

Jeanne Morefield (Oxford University) will give a talk in the framework of the HEC Colloquia hosted by the Department of History

This talk uses Edward Said’s contrapuntal reading of imperialism to critique the self–referential, exceptionalist impulses of contemporary liberalism – what I call liberal narcissism. A musical term that refers to the interplay of various, sometimes atonal, themes working their way through a single piece of music, in Said’s hands, counterpoint is transformed into a generative, interpretive lens through which to read imperialism, in the past and present. Crucially, a contrapuntal method seeks out moments of both rupture and connection, treating imperialism as a contested and joint experience. I adapt Said’s contrapuntal approach to a critical practice that reads liberalism as an imperializing, global ideology.

The point, I suggest, is to similarly approach the history of this ideology as a contested and joint experience that rationalizes – even as it occludes – it’s affiliative connections to imperialism. Tracing and disentangling these connections can help de-centre and de–exceptionalize liberalism precisely at a political moment when we need to be thinking beyond its limitations.

Please register in order to get a seat in the conference room or the ZOOM link.