The (Un)Feasible Stranger

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The (un)feasible Stranger Towards a critique of the concept of the Unfamiliar 1 Introduction With the dawn of modernity the zeal to order physical and social space has become one central condition for the successful creation of nation states1. In the case of Germany, national unity was up until the 19th century not described through territorial borders but cultural and political unity2. The founding of the nation state set an end to that period so that the structuring of physical space became the inviolable predicament for stately sovereignty, and its preservation presumably fulfilled a peace making function. As an example for ordering social space, the establishment of the Panopticon served as a means to sort out criminal space invaders of one’s own socialization 3 (Foucault, 1975). In contrast to ‘friends’ of the state, these could easily be labeled as enemies. In addition to this antagonistic construction of friend and enemy, Bauman introduces the allegorical figure of 'the stranger.' Paradoxically the stranger, a figure created by society, stands outside of it, because he can be assigned to neither of these two categories. Instead, the characteristic of the stranger is his indisputable presence yet unfamiliarity so that he remains society's suspiciously undecidable. To put it in Baumann’s words: "Undecidables brutally expose the artifice and fragility of the most vital of separations; they poison the comfort of order with suspicion of chaos“4. The subsequent outcome is that the stranger, due to his disobedient nature, produces ubiquitous fear. As one who fits within a preordained position he creates fear because society continually fails to pin down this conspicuously unknown element5 Taking Baumann’s analysis as inspiration and guide, this paper will discuss the concept of the stranger by means
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