This article will examine the emergence of a distinct bourgeois identity in modernity which differentiated itself from comparable social groups through its desire to exert 'virtuous' control through engagement with reform and philanthropy, and through the symbolic construction of a transgressive, socially marginal but redeemable other as subject of this reform. The ontological insecurities of late modernity had a profound impact on the sources of bourgeois identity, and this article will explore the emergence of the cultural omnivore as a new (...) form of social distinction which is no longer virtuous, but is still a manifestation of the desire to express identity through demonstrating control. It will outline the impact of the emerging omnivore on relationships between the bourgeois self and the marginal/deviant other, particularly in terms of the extent to which the reconceptualisation of 'other' as cultural univore exacerbates the exclusion and criminalisation of the marginalized other. (shrink)

This essay proposes to examine minority literature, and the scandals often associated with it, as a function of economy and choice. Rather than weighing the political strategies of identity and representation available to minority literature, this approach aims to dissect the ways its circulation is conditioned both by the modern liberal principle of self-ownership and by the flexible conversion of value among different economies characteristic of late capitalist forms of recognition. The entanglement of these spheres of value becomes explicit in (...) the moment of choice inherent to scandal, where the political or philosophical questions of minority identity are reduced to a matter of expenditure. Using the insights of Amartya Sen and Jean Baudrillard on the prerogative of choice in the constitution of capitalist subjects, I argue that it can offer a more comprehensive account of the political valence of minority literature, and its scandals, than the hermeneutics of representation. (shrink)

This article underlines and draws attention to critical insights Esposito makes regarding the prospects of rethinking community in a globalized world. Alongside Agamben and Nancy, Esposito challenges the property prejudice found in mainstream models of community. In identity politics, collective identity is converted into a form of communal property. Borders, sovereign territories, and exclusive rights are fiercely defended in the name of communal property. Esposito responds to this problem by developing what I call a “deontological communal contract” where being and (...) ethics are prioritized over having and economics. I examine this new perspective on community in relation to mainstream models found in contemporary and classical social theory. (shrink)