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Transdifference
Two Years of Transdifference - An Interim Report
Britta Kalscheuer/Lars Allolio-Näcke (Erlangen)
Two years ago Helmbrecht Breinig, an Americanist at the University of Erlangen, created the concept of transdifference, which he used initially to designate a higher category under which he could group phenomena that belong to several cultural fields. Thus he used the name as a collective term for such concepts as hybridity, transculturalism, creolism, etc. To define in concrete terms this at first very vague concept is the goal of the graduate college "Cultural Hermeneutics from the Perspective of Difference and Transdifference," which began operation in April 2001. In this framework the Americanist Klaus Lösch made the first specific definition of the leading concept. Further attempts followed. This contribution is intended to present a first survey over the development of the concept of transdifference and, above all, to test its potential in comparison to the alternative concepts mentioned above.
The center of this presentation provides conceptual considerations, dealing, above all, with the relationship of the concept of transdifference to the concept of difference. According to Breinig and Lösch, transdifference designates a condition of oscillation between two poles, which causes a temporary disruption of the differences. In this context particularly, the relation of transdifference to concepts of difference as well as also to alternative concepts such as Homi K. Bhabba's concept of hybridity will be discussed in thematic terms. In addition we will also present several perspectives on the phenomenon of transdifference that go beyond purely conceptual considerations.
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