free at last
So what does one need to do in order to be free? As Shane Phelan also puts it: “If we are to be free, we must learn to embrace paradox and confusion” (1989:170). Jung also states that “the paradox is one of our most valuable spiritual possessions, while uniformity of meaning is a sign of weakness…only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life” (1993: 15-16). And Nietzsche warns that “Everything absolute belongs in the realm of pathology” (1955:154). Jamal also endorses Bhabha’s appeal for a “third space” which Jamal defines as “the reflexive and intuitive embrace of the agency of the irrational, a-significatory, a-categorical, or magical” (2005: 40). And Gilles Deleuze says that “[p]aradox is initially that which destroys good sense as the only direction, but it is also that which destroys common sense as the assignation of fixed identities” (1993:41).
Phelan, Shane. 1989. Identity Politics: Lesbian Feminism and the Limits of Community. Philedelphia: Temple University Press.
Jung, Car Gustav. 1993. Psychology and Alchemy. Translated by R.F.C. Hull. London: Routledge.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1955. [1886]. Beyond Good and Evil. Translated and with an introduction by Marianna Cowan. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.
Jamal, Ashraf. 2005. Predicaments of Culture in South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press.
Deleuze, Gilles. 1993. The Deleuze Reader. Edited and with an Introduction by Constantin V. Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press.
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