Call for papers - Tamara special issue

“Remembering Derrida: “A Language of Friendship”

Guest Editor: Dr. Zrinka Mendas

For Tamara Journal of Critical Organization Inquiry

Call Close Date: 31st JUNE 2013

Abstract

Jacques Derrida died on 8 October 2004 in Paris (Le Monde, 2004). During his academic career spanning over 50 years he published more 40 books alongside with abundant essays and public presentations. Le Monde (2004) dedicated a special issue of 10 pages to Derrida’s life and work, while former French president Jacques Chirac hailed him not only as one of the most influential and contemporaneous philosophers, but also as an extraordinary and generous thinker that France produced.

Derrida left behind a vast legacy of unpublished material. Subject matter of politics of friendship is one of his most recurrent themes. In his first treatise on The Politics of Friendship Derrida speaks of its traces of responsibility; hostility; courage; fraternity; will; honour; foolishness; justice; faithfulness; loyalty; remembrance; mourning; silence; reconciliation and so on. The theme re-emerges in The Work of Mourning (Derrida, 2001) and later, across two volumes of The Beast and the Sovereign (Derrida, 2009, 2011). Both were published posthumously.

For Derrida, the theme of the politics of friendship remains an unfinished affair. In The Politics of Friendship(1997) he calls upon the reader to join him on his quest of discovering a true meaning of and a language of friendship. This special issue is an invitation to explore the traces of friendship that Derrida speaks of, through a language of storytelling. More than ever this theme, and especially that of a language of friendship, is becoming relevant. A prolonged economic crisis has elevated it to a new height; where certain events are forming the ruptures and voids in and between all spheres of the society: individuals, communities, organisation, governments and nation. Certain questions are worth addressing:

-          What is true value of friendship?

-          To what extent a ‘political’, identity or culture may influence friendship?

-          How can storytelling address this theme?

-          How can we proceed from the methodological point of view?

One constantly keeps stumbling over how to present and translate these ruptures and voids in the context of the politics and language of friendship. Storytelling offers a way of doing so. Stories speak on behalf of Other, the beasts from Derrida’s world, their unspoken and marginalised voices, of their pain or suffering, sorrow or happiness, or exclusion from society. In an empirical context such examples can be found in the cases of the disadvantaged communities: those of homeless, disabled or tribal citizens. Thus, this special issue honours Derrida’s legacy in the sense that it endeavours to re-connect Derrida and his future readers (us) through the stories as a language of friendship. It calls for an interdisciplinary approach, broadening the scope of domains to include novel ways of exploring this theme.

Manuscript including abstract (200 words) and article (8000 words) should be submitted via on-line system of Tamara Journal: http://www.tamarajournal.com. Enquiries about questions regarding content of the special issue, submission process and all technical problems can be made to the guest editor Zrinka Mendas (z.mendas@gmail.com) and Tamaraeditor Paweł Krzyworzeka(pkrzyworzeka@alk.edu.pl) respectively. Letters of acceptance will be sent by the end of July 2013.