Supercriticality and Intercultural Dialogue (Encounters between East and West)

✍ Scribed by Fred Dervin, Huiyu Tan

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 159
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book offers a snapshot of interculturality as a complex, unstable and highly political object of research and education when it locates at the centre of multifaceted dialogues between teachers and students; students and students; teachers, students, scholars and readers. The context of the book is a Chinese course on intercultural communication education where students engage with local and international teachers. By listening to the intriguing and stimulating voices of these students in dialogue with the teachers, the reader also has the opportunity to enter the intercultural world of Chinese youth, beyond stereotypes. The unique approach proposed in the book is of interest to students, teachers of intercultural communication education, teacher educators, researchers and anyone wishing to build up supercriticality in relation to the fascinating notion of interculturality.

The book contains 15 chapters and revolves around five main dialogues between the students and their teachers. Following each dialogue, the floor is given to the students to react to the dialogues and to share their views on questions that emerged from the main dialogues. The book conveys the authors’ excitement about approaching interculturality in supercritical ways, engaging in the process with multiple voices.

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Praise for Supercriticality and Intercultural Dialogue
Contents
List of Figures
1 Invigorating Interculturality Through Supercriticality and Dialogue (Fred Dervin)
1.1 Supercriticality as a Central Principle
1.2 About the Book
References
2 Dialogue I: Crossing Bridges
2.1 Three Questions to Consider
References
3 Thinking Big and Thinking Deep
3.1 Asking More ‘Whys’
4 The ‘Crash Course’ of Identity, Othering and Chinese Stories
4.1 Discussion 1: Fluid Identity on the Moon
4.2 Discussion 2: Taking Othering Onboard
4.3 Discussion 3: Exploring ‘Chinese Stories of Interculturality’ (Dervin, 2022)
4.4 Curiosity-Sincerity
References
5 Dialogue II: Advising Versus Preparing
5.1 Newness in Interculturality
5.2 Interpreting Pictures
5.3 Reflecting Together on Fragments
References
6 Resonating with Others
7 On Being Affected Implicitly
7.1 Discussion 1: Problematizing Cultural Arrogance
7.2 Discussion 2: Silent Transformations in Interculturality
7.3 Reflections from Huiyu on Dialogue 2—Peeking Behind the Stage of the Dialogue
8 Dialogue III: Balance and Chaos
8.1 Performance, Stage and Backstage in Interculturality
8.2 On the Need to Experience Linguistic Depaysement in Interculturality
8.3 Two Quotes
References
9 Acts of Compromise
References
10 There is no Formula for Intercultural Communication
Reference
11 Dialogue IV: From Whose Perspective?
11.1 Comments on Students’ Contributions
11.2 Surveying Oneself
11.3 More Fragments and Quotes
References
12 Refreshing Our Ideas, Thoughts and Attitudes
References
13 Politics of Interculturality
13.1 Discussion 1: Making sense of the Discourse Instrument of Cultural Appropriation
13.2 Discussion 2: The ‘Post-Pandemic’ World and Interculturality
Reference
14 Dialogue V: Daring to Ask, Daring to Challenge
14.1 Languages in Interculturality
14.2 Criticality and Reflexivity: Towards Supercriticality?
14.3 Can we be Good at Interculturality After All?
14.4 Summarizing
14.5 Final Questions and Answers
15 The Indispensable Collision of Thoughts
Reference
16 Instilling Interculturality in Our Practices
16.1 Interculturalizing Interculturality
16.2 Huiyu Reflects on the Last Dialogue
17 Conclusions: Supercriticality as a Way of Dealing with ‘Interculturalese’
17.1 Beyond Being Overwhelmed by the Reality of the Problem
17.2 Paying Attention to ‘Interculturalese’ as a Priority
References