What is transculturalism? Is it similar to multiculturalism or interculturalism? For us, it paves the way to a third possibility different from them, and this course aims to bring to light the scope and the potentiality of this concept.
The objective of transculturalism is not only to ensure the coexistence of cultural communities through a public recognition of their plurality. Nor does it simply consist of guaranteeing intercultural communications and compromises in order to protect the rights of citizens and to create national stability.
Transculturalism pays attention primarily to the individual who cuts across cultural borders and to the meaning of her or his experiences as a human subject.
Today, in this globalized world, it is a rather banal experience to encounter foreign cultures and discover others. Transcultural experience, however, is not to observe some cultures from the outside, but to experience them at once from the inside, which requires the individual to call into question her or his proper identity. As it were, because of taking root in several cultural communities through their language, one becomes aware that her or his identity is not entirely defined by her or his belonging to one of these cultures. In this sense, “tranculturation” is nothing less than ”the acquisition of a new code without losing the previous one.” (T.Todorov) Transculturalism, which is neither a shallow cosmopolitanism that ignores communal dimensions of culture, nor an unconditional praise of cultural plurality in its brightness, provides a unique domain and objective of research on human living in this world. This course investigates the meaning of transculturation given to human agents, particularly from the point of view of humanities.