The paper addresses the problem of publishing in the English language by researchers from other language areas, above all, by those from the former socialist “Eastern bloc” countries. Historically ...speaking, the problem became gradually acute after the social changes in 1989, when social changes also instigated the changes of institutions of research and education. These changes were based on the notion of internationalisation. The paper addresses three main components of the problem applying the appropriate methodology to discern each of them. The explanation of the first component, which combines the historical method and the critical theory approach, points to the system of compulsory publishing in English in a highly competitive international research environment. In it the co-operative “model” of the mutual recognition by scholars, as was suggested by St. Augustin in his “irenic” vision of epistemic community, cannot exist. The second main component is revealed through a loose application of deconstructive reading. The inception of semiology, which was prevalently formulated in the French language, was followed by the philosophical repudiation of the importance of linguistics above all in social sciences and humanities. Within this framework the difference between two philosophical paradigms – Anglo-Saxon and continental – emerged in a new form. This is still visible in the glitches of transferring the meaning from one culture and language to the other in English as lingua franca. The third component is viewed through the hermeneutical approach, notably by Paul Ricoeur, who highlighted the role of translation. In his vision, a translation encompasses far more than just a transfer from one language to another. The notion of “untranslatability” transposes the problem to the level of intercultural communication. At the same time this does not justify, in Ricoeur’s words, any insistence on “self-sufficiency as a core ‘value’ of every nationalism and cultural exclusivism”. It seems that this contradiction remained unsolved so far.
Stanley Cavell was hardly known to me before I met him in person. And then I wasgenuinely astounded about how, until then in my own pursuits in philosophy to come to terms with the (in)famous ...discrepancies and differences between the Continental and Anglo-American philosophy, I had somehow managed to miss his contributions.
This paper examines the historical and social context of Filip Robar-Dorin's film Ovni in mamuti (Rams and Mammoths, 1985), which revealed ethnic tensions in Slovenia at a critical time before the ...demise of communism and the looming break-up of multiethnic Yugoslavia. Robar-Dorin's film subversively reveals the ideology of national identity, and therefore does not represent a mirror for Slovenians to see themselves as they would prefer to. Instead, it is a film in which they are compelled not to miss the gaze of the other. The redefined Slovenian national identity as a notion of democracy before the process of significant social and political changes had begun. However, the success of both Robar-Dorin's film and the political alternative was mitigated significantly in later political events.
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