The Thingified Subject's Resistance in the Middle East
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12980237 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Govand Khalid Azeez (0000-0001-5752-0320, Macquarie University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 119-135 |
| Publication date | 2015-03-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Middle East Critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1943-6149 • E-ISSN: 1943-6157 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19436149.2015.1023505 |
| OpenAlex | W2038614514 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 9 |
Colonization, I postulate, has a far more profound effect on the colonized than conceptualized in Aimé Césaire's postcolonial equation, colonization = thingification. Rather, here I put forward a new postcolonial equation for tracing the infinite and insidious effects of colonialism: Colonization = thingification + re-appropriation of subjectivity. I argue that Western imperial narratives and what Edward Said calls its ‘evaluative judgment’ and ‘implicit program of action’ also subjectify the thingified subject's Weltanschauung, cultural practices and more importantly, subjectivity. I present this equation through theorizing what I call Counter-Revolutionary Discourse (CRD). This discourse is an historicized, Eurocentric-Orientalist implicit program of action and an analytical tool, which functions as a manual that assists the colonial apparatus in surveillance, gauging, ranking and subjectifying Middle Eastern subjectivity and resistance according to imperial exigencies. Through tracking the matrix of Western statements, ideas and practices, this genealogical exploration demonstrates that imperial enthusiasts, from Napoleon, Renan, Le Bon and Stoddard to Winston Churchill and David Petraeus, in encountering Middle Eastern revolutions—from the Mahdi, Urabi, Zaghloul, Mossadegh, the PLO and the PKK to the ‘Arab Spring’—draw on four Counter-Revolutionary Discourse systems of thought, which, I argue, are responsible for interpellating Oriental subjectivity and resistance, and which I denominate as: Recrudescence of Fanaticism, Progress Fetishism, Outsourcing of Agency, and the bipolar cognitive device Revolutionary Narcissism-Red Peril
Aesthetics · Appropriation · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Epistemology · Hegemony · Literature · Narrative · Orientalism · Political science · Politics · Postcolonialism (international relations · Psychoanalysis · Resistance (ecology · Self · Sociology · Subject (documents · Subjectivity · The Imaginary · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society
Abstract Spaces for Intervention in Libya and Nigeria
The Arab Uprisings, the Liberal Civilizing Narrative and the Problem of Orientalism
Decoding islamophobia in contemporary society
On wounds, incompleteness, and conviviality
The Role of Bedouin Youth and Women in Resistance to the Israeli Prawer Plans in the Naqab
The Agency of People Seeking Asylum in Aberdeen
How Best to Be Egyptian? The 'Honorable Citizen' and the Making of the Counter-revolutionary Subject
Beyond recognition
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,8 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2025 (10) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |