Censorship and Its Changing Taboos on the Egyptian Stage—From Politics and Religion to Sexual Frustration

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-184
Author(s):  
Dina Amin
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dramatic Literature ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
Point Of Intersection ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gain Access

When asked about “political control of a population,” Michel Foucault responded, “[P]ower had to gain access to the bodies of individual, to their acts, attitudes, and modes of everyday behavior . . .I believe that the political significance of the problem of sex is due to the fact that sex is located at the point of intersection of the discipline of the body and the control of the population.” This insight is often reflected in the relationship between literature that deals with the body and the discipline imposed on it by various institutions (whether religious or social) in the form of censorship. One good example of that “ethical” exercise of power versus dramatic literature emerged when Sameh Mahran, a professor at the Cairo Academy of Arts, wrote Al-Marakbi (The Boatman), a play in two acts with an epilogue.

The political rationalities of indebtedness: Control, discipline, sovereignty

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-468
Author(s):  
Jean François Bissonnette
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Important Phenomenon ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Character ◽  
Loan Contract

This article examines the political character of debt relations, focusing in particular on the increasingly important phenomenon of personal indebtedness. Following Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, it distinguishes between three forms of ‘rationality’ that explain the various power dynamics at play beneath the formal and seemingly voluntary loan contract. Debt first exemplifies the open-ended flows of power that circulate in the networked structures of the ‘societies of control’ described by Deleuze. Far from signaling the demise of the modern disciplines analyzed by Foucault, credit relations are, on the contrary, shown to depend on some of the normalizing procedures that constituted the common core of disciplinary institutions. Arguing for a synchronic approach to historical political rationalities, this article highlights the relationship between debt and sovereignty, showing the intrication of contemporary, financialized forms of capitalist exploitation and the state’s ancient pretension to exact from its citizens an infinite debt of existence. Debt thus combines the respective effects of control, discipline and sovereignty and constitutes as such a powerful technology for the governing of individuals and populations.

Ohne-Tun und Selbstwandel

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 818-835
Author(s):  
Fabian Heubel
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Spontaneous Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Lao Tzu ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gain Access ◽  
Commentarial Tradition

Abstract In the text “The Principles of a Liberal Social Order”, Friedrich A. von Hayek quotes from Chapter 57 of the Daoist classic Lǎozǐ 老子 (alternative transliterations are Lao Tzu, Laotse, etc.; the text is also known under the title Dàodéjīng or Tao Te King 道德經). Appearing in a text devoted primarily to the concept of “spontaneous order”, the quote opens up questions regarding the relationship between liberalism and Daoism, which I address in this essay. The discussion comprises three parts. In the first part, I turn to the translation cited by Hayek and, by way of a commentary to the translation, I attempt to gain access to the motifs of “effortless action/without doing” (wúwéi 無為), “self-transformation” (zìhuà 自化) and “self-government” (zìzhì 自治); the second part offers a hermeneutic commentary through which I discuss interpretative approaches found in the Chinese commentarial tradition; finally, the third part outlines transcultural correspondences which explore the political meaning of the Daoist “without doing” and the idea of “spontaneous order” in the context of the discursive struggle between the “democratic West” and “authoritarian China”.

scholarly journals Humour and Protest: Jokes under Communism

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 291-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Davies
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Safety Valve ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
The Relationship

The largest corpus of jokes we have ridiculing both rulers and a political system comes from the former Soviet Union and the then communist countries of eastern Europe. These forbidden jokes were important to those who told them at some risk to themselves. They can be construed as a form of protest, but the relationship between jokes and protest is not a simple one. The number of jokes told was greater, and the telling more open, in the later years of the regimes than in the earlier years of terror and extreme hardship. The number of jokes is a product of the extensiveness of political control, not its intensity. Such jokes probably have no effect either in undermining a regime or in acting as a stabilizing safety valve. However, they were a quiet protest, an indication that the political system lacked stability and could collapse quickly.

scholarly journals Arendt’s Political Theology—From Political Religion to Profanation

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 111-131
Author(s):  
Bulent Diken ◽  
Carsten Bagge Laustsen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Religion ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Voluntary Servitude

The article elaborates on Arendt’s take on the religious and the political and on how they interact and merge in modernity, especially in totalitarianism. We start with framing the three different understandings of religion in Arendt: first, a classic understanding of religion, which is foreign to the logic of the political; second, a secularized political religion; and third, a weak messianism. Both the classic understanding of religion and the political religion deny human freedom in Arendt’s sense. Her transcendent alternative to them both is the notion of the democratic political community: the Republic. Then we turn to Arendt’s political theology, illuminating why interrogating Nazism is central to examine the relationship between politics and religion in modernity. This is followed by a discussion of Nazism as a type of political religion. We focus here on totalitarianism, both as an idea and actual institution. We conclude with an assessment of the role of profanation in Arendt’s work and its significance vis-à-vis the contemporary ‘return of religion’ as well as totalitarian tendencies which call for new forms of voluntary servitude.

scholarly journals The European Union and First Years AKP: Popular Nationalism in Turkey

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1090-1109
Author(s):  
Muhammet Erdal OKUTAN
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sample Group ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
Group Think ◽  
Popular Nationalism ◽  
Intellectual Elites ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cultural Structure

Nationalism is one of the important ideologies; it is too difficult to express what nationalism is in one sentence, because it is a multidimensional, debatable ideology. In Turkey, nationalism is also an important issue because of its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural structure. Moreover elites have an important roles on constructing a type of nationalism, especially popular nationalism. Critiques and opposition of the political and intellectual elites against the governmental policies indicated the escalated atmosphere in nationalist discourse in Turkey until 2010. Therefore, this work empowered the theories of popular nationalism, which contribute the relationship between the elites and nationalism to the body of theoretical knowledge. However, some other issues may escalate the popular nationalism in Turkey. Turkish public thinks on that way; 29 percentages of the sample group think that the cause of escalating nationalism in Turkey is PKK terrorism, and secondly 17 percentages of the sample group suggested that EU demands led the increase.  On the other hand some may claim that even those issues are interrelated.

scholarly journals RELIGION AND POLITICS IN A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-133
Author(s):  
Danoye Oguntola Laguda
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Pluralistic Societies ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Determinant Factor

The interaction between religion and politics has been a subject of debate among scholars of religion, political scientists and sociologists. The arguments have generally been that of total or partial dis-interaction between the two phenomena. To the protagonists, religion should not be corrupted with the tricks, intrigues and challenges of politics. On the other side of the divide, the opinion is that the two institutions should relate to each other for the benefits of humanity. Our observation has shown that the nature of the society is a determinant factor if the relationship should ever be allowed to exist. It has been argued that in homogenous societies, politics and religion can relate to each other as suggested by the protagonists. However, in pluralistic societies like Nigeria, secularism has been suggested as an alternative. In Nigeria, our case study, it is noted that religions have always played significant roles in the political process, policy formulations and their implementation.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jacob M. Baum
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Social Power ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter introduces the narrative of de-sensualization promoted by early German Protestants, and briefly outlines its persistence in modern academic and popular discourse. It then addresses recent attempts to deal with the senses in religion among historians of early modern Europe and the German Reformation specifically, showing how the scholarship has enriched our understanding of the relationship between religious changes and sensory culture in this period, but has tended to focus primarily on vision and hearing and has often ignored some of the political, economic, and social power dynamics that often complicated the place of the senses in religious belief and practice. Thereafter, it outlines the major arguments of the study, its scope and methodology, and previews each of the body chapters.

“Illegal Religious Activities” and Counter-Terrorism in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Chi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Religious Policy ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The fight against terrorism prompts governments to differentiate between “good” religious practices and the “bad” ones. The simplistic dichotomy of “good” and “bad” Muslims has led to a cascade of criticism, but a fallacy underlying this dualism remains underexplored. This paper examines the “no true Scotsman” fallacy that is prevalent in the political discourse surrounding terrorism and religion. It argues that China's attempt to counteract the essentialist assumption about Uyghurs leads to a reinforced “good-versus-bad” dichotomous categorization of Muslims, reflected in the binary of “normal” and “illegal” in China's religious policy. This is a major contribution to the existing literature on politics and religion because, theoretically, this paper applies the “no true Scotsman” fallacy and “good” and “bad” Muslims dichotomy to explain the relationship between politics and religion; empirically, it provides a rich overview of the political nature of religious policy in China.

scholarly journals Fashion as an Institutional System

Pólemos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-38
Author(s):  
Paolo Heritier
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Political Body ◽  
Institutional System ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The analysis of the relationship between fashion and institutions could represent a new approach in the theoretical analysis of fashion. This article is an attempt to show how, from an analysis of Simmel, Lotman, Volli and Legendre and a semiotic-juridical perspective, the topic of fashion can be linked to an anthropological-juridical perspective and a juridical conception of fashion as a normative institution. Juridical knowledge appears to be essential for the anthropological understanding of the phenomenon of fashion and too many studies have forgotten the contribution of the juridical sciences to the theoretical configuration of the question. From a complex historical-juridical analysis of the notion of Corpus Iuris (Kantorowicz) emerges the value of the medieval notion of corpus mysticum as a fictional body, referring to a political context that is both liturgical and ritual. The reference to this idea thus passes from the Corpus Iuris Civilis of medieval canonical law to the modern aesthetic signification (fictional and iconic) of the notion of the political body, referring to the modern state, which is still to be found on the well-known frontispiece of Hobbes’ book the Leviathan and then to the fictional and stylised bodies of the models in a fashion show. Following the theories of Legendre, the conclusion of this article suggests to reintroduce the secularised juridical and theological lexis for the aesthetic relationship between the natural body and the fictitious body, seen as a mystical and political body, considered present in the practices of dressing and twentieth-century fashion. Fashion is one of the forms through which, in mobilising desire, the human being constructs that “second body”, fictitious, represented, parallel to the real body, which is constitutive of the subjective and collective identity of a society. This body is fashioned under the ritualised and institutionalised form of the garment that hides the body, concealing its animality, which gives access to a collective fictitious reality, of which, we could add, all the products of the semiosphere, including the juridical institutions, are formed.

Hobbes and Hooker; Politics and Religion: A Note on the Structuring of Leviathan

1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Stephen State
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
Scriptural Exegesis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe article compares the Ecclesiastical Polity of Richard Hooker with Thomas Hobbes's Christian Commonwealth focussing primarily on the political dimension of religious life. The comparison serves to undermine the position—still surprisingly widespread—which sees Hobbes as sacrificing religion to political stability by displaying the extent to which and the way in which Hooker takes religious practice (since Constantine) to be a matter of public policy requiring authoritative determination. Also, a somewhat novel suggestion is elaborated regarding the relationship between the “rational” and “religious” parts of Leviathan. It is suggested that the first part of Leviathan is a kind of conceptual primer—a guide to Scriptural exegesis—and that the parts of Leviathan thus form an integrated whole.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document