The Pseudo Knowledges of Intercultural Communication

Abstract

Since mentality is defined as a mode of thinking, it results that a number of paradigms and mechanisms are at use. These are meant to create what runs under the name of ‘reality’. Thus, if a certain mentality is to be changed, it is the process of the construction of this reality that needs to be investigated, understood and, ultimately, altered. In Homi Bhabha’s words, ‘counter knowledges’ are built ‘in medias res’^1[p22]. By this, one is to acknowledge that the endeavor is inherently difficult for it needs one to be in the middle of the events and notice the dynamics of the entire working while, at the same time, being able to interfere in it in order to bring about the adjustments wanted. Orientalism is but one of the most prominent cultural and communicational systems of the last centuries that has had a dramatic impact in the global economy of cultural communications. It is this one that the present article will explore while simultaneously presenting counter point reactions to it.