다문화주의를 넘어서: Charles Taylor와 Slavoj Žižek의 이론을 중심으로

Abstract

The essay explores Charles Taylor's and Slavoj Žižek's theories of multiculturalism, and attempts to suggest the alternative to multicultural ideas dominated in the Western societies. Firstly, the essay examines Taylor's consideration of multiculturalism, in particular, his argument on the relationship between recognition and cultural communication based on language in general. Taylor regards language in a broad sense as a cultural code system by which one can recognize his or herself in the process of communication with the other. What Taylor seems to put an emphasis on is that the idea of multiculturalism is the very telos inscribed in the development of modern states as well as of the individuals. Taylor points out the beginning of modernization and the birth of authenticity as the category of immanent morality. Through the authenticity, that is, the category of morality, the individual could find the original self. From this perspective, the doctrine of Herderian nationalism came to exist in its own right. Different from Taylor's viewpoint, Žižek criticizes multiculturalism as an ideology suppressing the singularities of ethnic groups. Multiculturalism serves as the discursive justification of racial hierarchy in the society by preserving a cultural and political distance from immigrants. Like a Chinese lunchbox, such an ideological set-up operates with the logic of assimilation, even though multiculturalism openly asserts itself as the alternative to the assimilating policies. Discussing the difference between Taylor and Žižek, the essay concludes that an attempt to go beyond multiculturalism is the way in which one can create a world that comes into the singularities without unitotality forced by the globalizing worldlessness.