Countering Classicism or Three Dreams of Escaping Eurocentrism’s Historiographical Prison

Classicism – Eurocentrism’s way of telling the story of history – has murderous effects. We see those effects everywhere from Palestine to East Turkestan, from Kashmir to Myanmar and in the demonisation of refugees and migrant people who seek asylum on Europe’s shores. Muslims and others who find themselves on the underside of European colonialism are dislocated from the ancient past, forced to become “a people without history” and positioned as late-coming invaders with no rightful claim to the lands they inhabit. Historians have known for decades now that something is wrong with the shape of history. We have tried to counter history’s Eurocentrism by looking to paradigms of global history, subaltern history and other reorganisations of history’s methods. In this lecture I will argue that these reorganisations of history have been limited to operating within the logic of classicism. I will show that in order to truly rewrite the history of the world, we will need to counter classicism. And with Edward Said and Julia Kristeva as my (unlikely) allies, I will find the tools for this countering in that which is abject and unimaginable for Eurocentrism: Islamism. 

No pre-reading is required (all are welcome) but those who would like to read something in advance may be interested in this short (open access / public-facing) piece which explores some of the real-world consequences of Classicism: How the Past Became a Weapon of Genocide in Palestine | Public Humanities | Cambridge Core