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• Published in: Književna istorija Vol. 55; no. 179; pp. 51 - 62
• Main Author: Vladiv-Glover, Slobodanka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Serbian
• Published: Intitute for Literature and Art 2023
• Subjects: Studies of Literature; Theory of Literature; Mikhail Epstein; Merab Mamardashvili; Bildung; transculture; concept of the outside (vnenahodimost); différence; cultural schizophrenia
• ISSN: 0350-6428

In this discussion of the concept of transculture, which originated with the Russian-American critic Mikhail Epstein in conjunction with the Georgian philosopher Merab Mamardashvili (who unofficially introduced post-structuralism into Soviet thought in the 1980s), the present author places the concept into a wider context of European thought on the production of meaning in culture. The concept of transculture is defined by difference which is privileged as the arche of meaning and self-reflexive thought in poststructuralism (Derrida), and which resonates with Mikhail Bakhtins concept of the outside (vne-nahodimost). This leads to the deduction that the the position of the outsider is the ideal transcultural position of meaning. For Epstein, transculture is a mode of being at the cross-roads of cultures. The effect of this is that transculture frees humanity from culture itself. It is, according to the present author, from such a position of freedom that the transculturalist resembles Hegels phenomenologist, whose starting position in Bildung (education) is a double negativity. For, according to Epstein and Mamardashvili, the centre of transculture is the notion of non-belonging. Thus, all forms of identity (identity politics, nationalism, racisms, ethnicities, etc.) are alien to the mode of being of transculture. Ultimately, it is concluded, transculture is a transcendental concept irreducible to an empirical dimension such as a methodology or a discipline (for example, World Literature or Cultural Studies).