Quo Vadis Europe?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present article offers a trenchant criticism of the imaginative geographies of ‘Europe’ using a Pred inspired methodology. The essay strikes at the mythos of Europa as the vanguard of humanity, and enumerates many of the ‘dirty tricks’ that project the singular as confirmation of the universal. It aligns with the critique of the present in the manner of Allan Pred’s critical takes on Europe and deconstruction of the mythos of Europe. With Nietzsche’s takes on ‘philosophical laughter’ as a cue, the essay offers playful parodies on the narcissistic discourses of Europe’s historical mission or purpose, its essence/identity, and its place in history. My critique is thus an instance of postcolonial laughter. Critique of historicism and ‘European reason’ are recurrent themes in Pred’s work. Historicism places European humanity as history’s prime (favourite) subject, culminating in the infamous yet pompous ‘end of history’ thesis popularized by Fukuyama, of which Pred was highly critical of. In my reading, Pred’s playful takes on Fukuyama’s folly, are inspired by postcolonial laughter. Postcolonial laughter is deployed here as an affirmative response to the European negation of the other’s being. I use by turn satire and irony, by turn parody and the grotesque to strike at the heart of the mythos of Europe and its ‘dirty tricks’. Postcolonial laughter unsettles the hubris and narcissism underlying discourses of Europe’s mission/moralism as the vanguard of humanity. Postcolonial laughter is attuned to Pred’s ‘restless geographies’.