Wow, that’s been a hectic couple of days and I’ve mostly been on adrenalin, since I gave up caffeine a few months ago (which reminds me… Mum? If I forget to actually ask you this in person, could you please stop the coffee deliveries for now…thanks).
The talk at the State library was good. It touched on a few of the points that I discussed with him in my interview, which was kinda validating. And there was a good discussion afterwards, with some key issues relating to my work. Someone brought up the Hardt & Negri challenges to Bhabha’s work which was interesting, and one woman challenged Bhabha’s use of an Adrienne Rich poem given her history of identitarian politics. I found that really interesting too, as she’s an edge identity person by my definitions (queer and jewish)…
The drinks beforehand were just the usual kind of crowd of people standing around drinking. I was definitely just ‘the journalist’ but it was very nice to be invited and Bhabha *hugged* me hello and told me to keep in touch, and to visit if I’m ever in America. If I do decide to be an academic, this is a very good connection to have made.
Anyhow, from tonight, I’m thinking:
- I need to seriously think about changing my term ‘edge identity’ throughout if I don’t mean identity. Bhabha uses ‘identification’ to mean something other than identity. Of course, there’s the term ‘subject’ and thanks to a reminder from p_cat in a response to a post ages ago, I went through and checked that I was using identity and subjectivity carefully all the way through, but I kept ‘edge identity’ until now… It’s hard to give up though, because I’ve been using it for about six years now…
- I’d like to use that Adrienne Rich poem as a marginal text as well, since she is relevant to my work.
- I think I probably need to fold in another reference to Bhabha right near the conclusion, specifically with regards to political and ethical dimensions of action.
- I still don’t feel like the language of my work is where I want it to be. It’s too prosaic. Take this gorgeous sentence of Bhabha’s: There is no ventriloquism of victimage here; no consensual cartography. (ignore the fact that ‘victimage’ is an awful word that i don’t think exists)
My head hurts and I think I’m going to grab an early night with a non-theoretical book for the first time in a long, long time. Meeting with supervisor tomorrow.