Proposition and Relation

by Eduardo Glissant

1. “Proposition”

Glissant critiques Western concepts of universality, which often impose one culture’s perspective on others. Instead, he proposes an idea of totality that respects and integrates differences without subsuming them into one dominant narrative. Opacity: we must accept and respect the “opacity” of others—the aspects of a culture or individual that are not immediately legible or understandable. This is crucial to ethical engagement, as it avoids forcing others into predefined categories.

==Rhizomatic Thinking:== Borrowing from Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome, Glissant’s proposition advocates for non-linear, decentralized modes of thought and being. It emphasizes networked connections that grow in multiple directions without a singular root or center.

Relational Ethics: This framework insists on ethical responsibility in relationships—between people, cultures, and environments. It suggests that every interaction contributes to a larger, shared world without reducing differences.

2. “Relation”-internal and external

-Boundary: Each particular culture is impelled by the knowledge of its particularity, but this knowledge is boundless. By the same token one cannot break each particular culture down into prime elements, since its limit is not defined and since Relation functions both in this internaI relationship (that of each culture to its components) and, at the same time, in an external relationship (that of this culture to others that affect it).

-Breakthrough

Every breakthrough toward a definition of this external relationship (between cultures) permits us a better approach to the components of each of the particular cultures considered. Analysis helps us to imagine better; the imaginary then helps us to grasp the (not prime) elements of our totality.

-Internal and external If we carry over these two movements (internaI and external relationship) to certain presuppositions of thought, the assessment, perhaps, will be that the former is determined by something related to the physical nature of beings, whereas the latter would follow a course that amounts to an approach to Being

The internaI relay would be massive, operating directly, whereas the external relation would be evasive (expanded), too swift in any case for any possibility of grasping its laws of operation at the moment that they apply. We shall guard against suggesting, parabolically, beings would be solid and Being volatile nor that a variable mass of beings would assume, in contrast~~, the infinity of Being~~. We must, rather, abandon this apposition of Being and beings: renounce the fruitful maxim whereby Being is relation, to consider that Relation alone is relation.

Interconnectedness: Relation moves beyond static notions of identity to acknowledge the dynamic interplay between peoples, cultures, and histories. Instead of individuality rooted in isolation, Relation seeks a constant exchange that transforms all participants.

-**Multiplicity and Chaos :Rather than reducing diversity into universal truths, Relation embraces multiplicity and chaos. Glissant values the complexities and contradictions inherent in cultural exchanges. This chaos is not disorder but a productive force generating new meanings and connections.

-Openness: Relation rejects closed systems of thought, encouraging an openness to difference and opacity (the right of others to remain incomprehensible). This openness does not demand assimilation but creates space for coexistence.

-Poetic Practice: Relation is inherently poetic. Its truths are expressed through narratives and storytelling, allowing for layered and evolving understandings.