pont-mainstreamsand-2009.pdf (135.44 kB)
Main streams and fine rivers : thinking the aporetics of edge
This paper takes up the question (reframed by Deleuze and Guattari) of where expansion takes place: at the ends or from the centre. Despite the connotations of mediocrity that can be attributed to the term ‘mainstream’, it is possible to rethink what happens at close range as the space of radical openings. Writers can often believe that what is most abnormal or fringe will produce the highest probability of creative ‘event’. The question, however, can be posed – framed by the lineage of deconstruction – whether the key to unlocking any system of totality or closed possibility may lie in a very central (although physically peripheral) location. If, instead of the classical image, expansion may occur from re-imagined ‘middles’ rather than conventional ‘margins’, this reading of where potential can arise may offer a more resilient model than that of fragile peripheries, forever exposed to being amputated from staid centres of status and restricted participation. Drawing on the writings of Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida and Badiou, this paper seeks to unsettle any simplistic approach to the notion of edge, reinscribing it within the repetitiveness of our situations, to argue that right in the middle of the so-called mainstream, there might be the fine rivers of aporia that when encountered in thought can constitutes gates to that which is most radical in writing and other creative practices.
History
Event
The Australian Association of Writing Programs Conference (14th : 2009 : Hamilton, New Zealand)Pagination
1 - 8Publisher
[AAWP]Location
Hamilton, New ZealandPlace of publication
[Hamilton, N.Z.]Start date
2009-11-26End date
2009-11-28ISBN-13
9780980757323Language
engPublication classification
E1.1 Full written paper - refereedCopyright notice
2009, Australian Association of Writing ProgramsEditor/Contributor(s)
M Freiman, D BrienTitle of proceedings
AAWR 2009 : The margins and mainstreams papers : the refereed proceedings of the 14th conference of the Australian Association of Writing ProgramsUsage metrics
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