Un-settling the canon: Generating alternative feminist knowledge practices, Italy

The first cluster of the NOISE Summer School evolves around the theme `Manifest yourself! Negotiating with the Feminist Heritage`. It deals with the history of feminist theory through a critical reading of the classical manifestos produced by or relevant to the women's movement. The method of approach is an inter-disciplinary, trans-cultural, multi-ethnic and cross-generational perspective. The theoretical issues will emerge from the reading of the selected texts and will range from the issue of the manifesto as a genre, the potentiality and limitations of the format, to more general issues. These involve epistemological questions about the subject of feminism, her/his location, politics and the ethical commitment to overcoming epistemological individualism, to a conceptual reading of the different strands of feminist theory over the last thirty years. Contemporary issues, such as third-wave feminism, technological mediation, critical studies of whiteness, and the post-secular turn will also be raised. Lecturers are selected from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds ranging from social and political philosophy, the arts, the social sciences, and social movement studies. The cluster reassesses a wide range of manifestos from past and present, and closes with the writing of a (collective or individual) (visual or textual) manifesto by all participants.

The second cluster, `Global Visions. Promoting Cultural Diversity`, aims to systematize and critically look at the dynamics of canon-forming processes in the contemporary visual and literary arts. In the light of increasingly urgent questions of globalisation, migrant communities, nomadism and double citizenship, the notion of the national heritage needs to be reformulated. We will examine the role of minority cultures in institutional structures and the politics of representation reflected in the practices of inclusion and exclusion. We will operate within the framework of queer and gender theory. How do concepts like exile, diaspora, double identity and cultural hybridity function in the Third World Cinema, literature, photography and other artistic practices? Can the methods, concepts and purposes of Western arts be suitable for art outside of Europe and North America? In the cluster we will examine how minority cultures have often been caught in the politics of translation which changed their dynamics. We will aim at confronting the effects of such changes and attempt to reformulate the positioning of global art practices.

This advanced training course offers a diversified, but coherent programme of study from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is meant for advanced MA students and PhD students and it will provide special and separate tuition seminars to these two groups.