IMC 2017: Sessions

If we assume that otherness is created through a process of othering, this automatically leads to the question of which categories and clusters are used to determine the difference between self and other, between identity and alterity. Classically these categories would be gender, class, 'race' (and body). According to F. Schnicke, analysing intersectionality means to describe and systematically explain social inequalities focusing on the internal plurality and simultaneousness of these (and other) categories of difference. According to G. Winker & N. Degele, intersectionality may also be understood as a system of interactions on three different levels: (-a) between inequality-creating social structures (i.e. of power relations), (-b) symbolic representations and (-c) identity constructions that are context-specific, topic-orientated and inextricably linked to social praxis. In both sessions we would like to put this theoretical approach to the test: Proceeding from the evidence of different sources reaching from Late Antiquity to the late Middle Ages we will investigate how these sources portray, enshrine, and legitimise (or criticise) inequality on the levels of identity, structure, and representation: Which clusters/categories do they use? How are these representations of inequality reconciled with images of integration and equality (e.g. image of God, baptism, common lineage)? Can we discern trends in the usage of certain categories in specific fields, times etc.?