eBook - ePub
Ambiguities of Domination
Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria
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eBook - ePub
About this book
Treating rhetoric and symbols as central rather than peripheral to politics, Lisa Wedeen's groundbreaking book offers a compelling counterargument to those who insist that politics is primarily about material interests and the groups advocating for them. During the thirty-year rule of President Hafiz al-Asad's regime, his image was everywhere. In newspapers, on television, and during orchestrated spectacles. Asad was praised as the "father," the "gallant knight," even the country's "premier pharmacist." Yet most Syrians, including those who create the official rhetoric, did not believe its claims. Why would a regime spend scarce resources on a personality cult whose content is patently spurious?
Wedeen shows how such flagrantly fictitious claims were able to produce a politics of public dissimulation in which citizens acted as if they revered the leader. By inundating daily life with tired symbolism, the regime exercised a subtle, yet effective form of power. The cult worked to enforce obedience, induce complicity, isolate Syrians from one another, and set guidelines for public speech and behavior. Wedeen's ethnographic research demonstrates how Syrians recognized the disciplinary aspects of the cult and sought to undermine them. In a new preface, Wedeen discusses the uprising against the Syrian regime that began in 2011 and questions the usefulness of the concept of legitimacy in trying to analyze and understand authoritarian regimes.
Wedeen shows how such flagrantly fictitious claims were able to produce a politics of public dissimulation in which citizens acted as if they revered the leader. By inundating daily life with tired symbolism, the regime exercised a subtle, yet effective form of power. The cult worked to enforce obedience, induce complicity, isolate Syrians from one another, and set guidelines for public speech and behavior. Wedeen's ethnographic research demonstrates how Syrians recognized the disciplinary aspects of the cult and sought to undermine them. In a new preface, Wedeen discusses the uprising against the Syrian regime that began in 2011 and questions the usefulness of the concept of legitimacy in trying to analyze and understand authoritarian regimes.
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Yes, you can access Ambiguities of Domination by Lisa Wedeen in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Middle Eastern History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
INDEX
Page numbers in italic refer to figures.
Abrahamian, Ervand, 180n. 90
Abukhalil, Asʿad, 182n. 104
Abu-Lughod, Lila, 200n. 21, 205–6n. 63
Adams, John, 49, 50
Adonis (poet), 55
Adorno, Theodor W., 167n. 30
Agulhon, Maurice, 180n. 91
Ahlam al-Madina, 203n. 43
Ahmad, Ahmad Iskandar, 33
ʿAlawi, 8–9, 55, 60, 67, 88, 113–14, 127–28, 165n. 23, 179n. 89, 191n. 80
Alef (Syrian journal), 83
allegiance, 11, 16, 35, 39, 48, 51, 60, 64, 68, 123, 152, 184n. 14
Almond, Gabriel A., 163n. 15
Althusser, Louis, 12
ambiguity, 26, 31, 45, 58, 84, 89, 101, 122, 152–56, 158
ambivalence, 2, 19, 22, 30, 60, 79, 105
America (American), 20, 44, 46, 47, 50, 115, 129, 151, 155, 159, 169, 176n. 79, 205n. 61
al-Ansari, Fadl, 42–43
anthropology, 11, 25, 196n. 1, 200n. 21
anxiety, 3, 33, 64, 71, 72, 94, 108
Arab-Israeli War of 1948–1949, 53–54, 71
Arendt, Hannah, 44–45, 79, 167n. 32, 185n. 24
Armbrust, Walter, 200n. 21
al-Arsuzi, Zaki, 55–56, 190nn. 71, 72
al-Asad, Bashshar (Asad’s son), 28, 39, 60–61, 191n. 80
al-Asad, Basil (Asad’s deceased oldest son), 2, 28, 39, 60–61, 125, 189n. 64, 191n. 80
al-Asad, Hafiz
as combatant (al-munadil), 1, 34, 54, 55
as common citizen, 17, 27
as God-like o...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Copyright Page
- Title Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transliteration
- One: Believing in Spectacles
- Two: Killing Politics: Official Rhetoric and Permissible Speech
- Three: Acting “As If”: The Story of M
- Four: Signs of Transgression
- Five: Complicating Compliance
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index