
Babel Unbound
Rage, Reason and Rethinking Public Life
Wits University Press
Published on 1. May 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
292 pages
978-1-77614-589-8 (ISBN)
Description
In this timely, original and sophisticated collection, writers from the Global South demonstrate that forms of publicness are multiple, mobile and varied
The notion that societies mediate issues through certain kinds of engagement is at the heart of imaginings of democracy and often centers on the ideal of the public sphere. But this imagined foundation of how we live collectively appears to have suffered a dramatic collapse across the world, with many democracies apparently unable to solve problems through talk - or even to agree on who speaks, in what ways and where. In the 10 essays in this timely, original and sophisticated collection, writers from southern Africa combine theoretical analysis with the examination of historical cases and contemporary developments to demonstrate that forms of publicness are multiple, mobile and varied. They propose new concepts and methodologies to analyse how public engagements work in society.
Babel Unbound examines charged examples from the Global South, such as the centuries old Timbuktu archive, Nelson Mandela as a powerful absent presence in 1960s public life, and the challenges to the terms of contemporary debate around the student activism of #rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall. These show how issues of public discussion span both archive and media, verbal debates in formal spaces and visual performances that circulate in unpredictable ways.
The notion that societies mediate issues through certain kinds of engagement is at the heart of imaginings of democracy and often centers on the ideal of the public sphere. But this imagined foundation of how we live collectively appears to have suffered a dramatic collapse across the world, with many democracies apparently unable to solve problems through talk - or even to agree on who speaks, in what ways and where. In the 10 essays in this timely, original and sophisticated collection, writers from southern Africa combine theoretical analysis with the examination of historical cases and contemporary developments to demonstrate that forms of publicness are multiple, mobile and varied. They propose new concepts and methodologies to analyse how public engagements work in society.
Babel Unbound examines charged examples from the Global South, such as the centuries old Timbuktu archive, Nelson Mandela as a powerful absent presence in 1960s public life, and the challenges to the terms of contemporary debate around the student activism of #rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall. These show how issues of public discussion span both archive and media, verbal debates in formal spaces and visual performances that circulate in unpredictable ways.
Reviews / Votes
This fi nger-on-the-pulse collection offers a new theory of the public sphere. Through news media, photography, archives, hashtags, 'art-rage', Muslim manuscripts, and much more, this incisive book illuminates the underlying dynamics of public engagement. - Isabel Hofmeyr, Global Distinguished Professor, New York University, Professor of African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand, and author of Gandhi's Printing Press: Experiments in Slow Reading (2013); ...an exciting book that brings the South African experience into the centre of debate over today's deep crisis of public life and democracy. The interest is not just local. It is deeply relevant for understanding populism and protests around the world. - Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University (USA) and Centennial Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science (UK); This is a timely, original and sophisticated collection that thinks the idea of the public sphere from a southern location. The essays attempt, in creative ways, to move out of the impasse of quibbles over how 'public' the public sphere is, stressing its pluralities, capillary nature and dispersed sites of discussion. - Dilip Menon, Mellon Chair in Indian Studies and Director of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, University of Witwatersrand, and editor of Capitalisms: Towards a Global History (2020)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Johannesburg
South Africa
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
2 b&w
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
449 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77614-589-8 (9781776145898)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Lesley Cowling is Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and an associate researcher at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town.
Carolyn Hamilton is the South African Research Chair in Archive and Public Culture at the University of Cape Town. She is the author of Terrific Majesty, and co-editor of Refiguring the Archive, The Cambridge History of South Africa and Babel Unbound.
Carolyn Hamilton is the South African Research Chair in Archive and Public Culture at the University of Cape Town. She is the author of Terrific Majesty, and co-editor of Refiguring the Archive, The Cambridge History of South Africa and Babel Unbound.
Content
Introduction - Lesley Cowling and Carolyn Hamilton
Chapter 1 Rethinking Public Engagement - Carolyn Hamilton and Lesley Cowling
Chapter 2 Tracing Public Engagements in Visual Forms - Carolyn Hamilton, Litheko Modisane and Rory Bester
Chapter 3 Media Orchestration in the Production of Public Debate - Lesley Cowling and Pascal Mwale
Chapter 4 Fluid Publics: The Public-Making Power of Hashtags in Digital Public Spaces - Indra De Lanerolle
Chapter 5 'Now We See Him, Now We Don't': The Media and the 'Black Pimpernel' - Litheko Modisane
Chapter 6 Archive and Public Life - Carolyn Hamilton
Chapter 7 Iconic Archive: Timbuktu and Its Manuscripts in Public Discourse - Susana Molins Lliteras
Chapter 8 The Politics of Representation in Marikana: A Tale Of Competing Ideologies - Camalita Naicker
Chapter 9 Artrage and the Politics of Reconciliation - Nomusa Makhubu
Chapter 10 Anger, Pain, and the Body in the Public Sphere - Anthea Garman
Contributors
Index
Chapter 1 Rethinking Public Engagement - Carolyn Hamilton and Lesley Cowling
Chapter 2 Tracing Public Engagements in Visual Forms - Carolyn Hamilton, Litheko Modisane and Rory Bester
Chapter 3 Media Orchestration in the Production of Public Debate - Lesley Cowling and Pascal Mwale
Chapter 4 Fluid Publics: The Public-Making Power of Hashtags in Digital Public Spaces - Indra De Lanerolle
Chapter 5 'Now We See Him, Now We Don't': The Media and the 'Black Pimpernel' - Litheko Modisane
Chapter 6 Archive and Public Life - Carolyn Hamilton
Chapter 7 Iconic Archive: Timbuktu and Its Manuscripts in Public Discourse - Susana Molins Lliteras
Chapter 8 The Politics of Representation in Marikana: A Tale Of Competing Ideologies - Camalita Naicker
Chapter 9 Artrage and the Politics of Reconciliation - Nomusa Makhubu
Chapter 10 Anger, Pain, and the Body in the Public Sphere - Anthea Garman
Contributors
Index