Cyprus Presentation

8/13/2019 Cyprus Presentation

1/16

Affective globalisation: On the politics and economies of emotions in the global era

Affective spaces, melancholic objectsRuination and the production of anthropological knowledge

Yael Navaro-Yashin

Daniel Alegrett (1300822) CREOLE Vienna, 13 January 2014


2/16

Yael Navaro-YashinReader of Social AnthropologyNewham College, University of CambridgeBorn in Istanbul, Turkey, to Daniel and LeydaNavaro

Married to Mehmet Yan, Nicosia-born writerB.A. Sociology, Brandeis University (USA)M.A. Anthropology, Brandeis UniversityPh.D. Princeton University

Author ofFaces of the State: Secularism and Public Life inTurkeyThe Make-Believe State: Affective Geography in aPostwar Polity

Research interests include: Anthropology of politics,ethnography of the state, affect and subjectivity, post-war environment, remnants, ruins, materiality andtangibility, spatiality and geography, Middle East,Southeastern Europe, Turkey, Cyprus, post-Ottoman

societies


Affect ive spaces, melanchol ic objectsRuination and the production of anthropological knowledge


3/16

Location of Cyprus within the Mediterranean Basin


Affective spaces, melancholic objectsRuination and the production of anthropological knowledge


4/16

Spatial distribution of Turkish-Cypriot and Greek Cypriot populationsbefore and after the partition of Cyprus



De facto sovereignty for the North: Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus(created 1983, recognized only by Turkey. Turkish troops still present)

The Republic ofCyprus (createdin 1960) has de

iure sovereigntyover the wholeisland.

It is internationallyrecognized.

But in fact it doesnot control theBritish bases, theUN buffer zone,nor the northern

section of theisland

The entire island asthe Republic ofCyprus is de iure amember of theEuropean Unionsince 2006 and the

Eurozone since 2008

The island was underOttoman sovereigntyfrom 1571 to 1914,but the Britishadministered theisland de factobetween 1878 and1960

Leased in exchangeof protection against

the Russian Empire,it was annexed by theBritish Crown in 1914after the Ottomansbecame allies ofAustria-Hungary,Germany and

Bulgaria in WWI


5/16

Affectiveglobalisation:Onthepoliticsandec

onomiesofemotionsintheglobalera

Affectivespace

s,melancholicobjects

Ruinatio

nandtheproduc

tionofanthropologicalknowledge

Density of the Turkish-Cypriot population between 1891 and 1973, it shows

the retreat into enclaves of the Turkish-Cypriot populationafter independence (1960) and before partition (1974)

following terrorism against British rule iand ntercommunal violence (led by EOKA and the TMT)

The shades indicate density of Turkish-Cypriot presence,from almost total (darkest) to none (white). Source: Wikipedia


6/16

Long-term fieldwork in 2001 and 2002 (several visits before and after) in NorthernCyprus among Turkish-Cypriot subjects and their relations to the remnants offormer Greek-Cypriot objects, properties and spaces.

Research questions

What does it feel to live among the ruined leftovers of the enemycommunity (Subjective question about inner feelings, emotions coded inlanguage).

Do objects and spaces transmit affective energies?(Non-subjective, non-linguistic question about the circulation of affect)

Alledged ethnographic bias: Hyperbolizing Left-wing Turkish-Cypriot remorseful and

reconciliatory appeals to the Greek-Cypriots, polarized against the Right-wing Turkish Cypriot ethno-nationalistic claims of exclusive sovereignty for a precarious make-believestate. Privileges those born before 1974. Ethnographic present: 2001-2002: Navaro-Yashin says her impressions hold even after 2008 (opening of border)

Ethical and political agenda or implications: Appeal forspaces of inclusion instead of

spaces of exclusion (sovereignty). This article would seem pessimistic about it

Ethnography




7/16

Theoretical framework

Intends to be anti-, trans-, and multi-paradigmaticEmbraces both. A and B [and yet C] approach

instead of eitherA orB approach (which ruins paradigms)Ethnographic research allows it and demands it for knowledge production

THEORIES OF AFFECTAND SUBJECTIVITYAND THEORIES OF LANGUAGEAND MATERIALITY

for an anthropological theory of affect

Some background anthropological influences:

Marilyn Strathern and post-modern anthropology, post-feminism, collapse of nature/culture

divide (senior collegue at the University of Cambridge)

Begoa Eretxaga, psychological anthropology of nationalism and political violence, staterepression and terror: Northern Ireland and the Basque Country, queer theory, post-Marxism,etc. Eretxaga was Navaro-Yashins close friend, visited her in Cyprus during fieldwork.Navaro-Yashin acted as one of her literary executors when Eretxaga died of cancer in 2002.




8/16

Affective turn in the human sciences, mainly inspired by philosopher GillesDeleuze and psychotehrapist Flix Guattari (Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-OedipusandA Thousand Plateaus).Affect (Logic of Sense), Root, Rhizome, Plateau

Deleuze continues the anti-Cartesian, anti-Kantian critique of the subject in Spinoza,Freudian psychoanalysis, structuralism (Lvi-Strauss), and post-structuralism (Lacan:subject as nothingness, Foucault: subjectification processes)

Navaro-Yashin reads Deleuze indirectly through commenters and secondary sources, e.g.,human geographer Nigel Thrifts non-representational geography

(Anthropological) theories of language and symbolization: semiology (JuliaKristeva), semiotics, hermeneutics, social constructionism, etc.

Theories of subjectivity (and emotion): psycho-cultural anthropology, some

sections of psychoanalysis, feminism, etc.

From Julia Kristevas The Powers of Horror: An essay on abjection, Navaro-Yashin picks the concept of the abject (=thrown away), a sickening horror thatmust be cast off from the self, as a negation of it. Perceived as horrific, repugnant

filth or dirt. Bodily expression: nausea, vomit. Necessary for self-formation.


Theoretical-methodological framework



9/16

Post-linguist ic theories of materiality

Spatiality, cultural geography

Non-representional theories in human geography: Nigel Thrifts readings ofDeleuze

Object-centred Actor-Network-Theory of Bruno Latour and colleagues. Non-

human agency. Things as actants. After Spinoza, Tarde, Deleuze social studies ofscience, against Durkheim and social constructionism. Networks, symmetry (trans-and post-paradigmatic social sciences), society as assemblage of things andhumans, collapse of nature-society divide

Affect as emotive energies discharged in the environment. Draws withoutcredit in the article (but discussed in Navaro-Yashins book) from Teresa Brennan,(like Sara Ahmed) Australian feminist cultural theorist interested in affects andemotions. The Transmission of Affect draws from Sigmund Freuds post-neurological, pre-linguistic, proto-psychoanalytical scientific project of ametapsychology, inspired by thermodynamic models.



Theoretical-methodological framework


10/16

Central analytical metaphorRuination


Theoretical framework

Walter Benjamins critique ofviolence and philosophy of historyTheses on the Philosophy of History

[On the Concept of History](last completed work of Benjaminbefore his suicide in 1940)

Inverts Marxist/Historical Materialist Hopeprinciple about future revolution. The task nowmust be to save the past from ruination

Pessimistic outlook on history in the face ofFascismCritique of reason and progress

Ruination is decay, destruction, despair, catastrophe, life and history in ruins

Ruins for Navaro-Yashin: What remains after destruction and violation: Ruinedartefacts and subjectivities. Residual affects lingering after conflict, war, orviolence.

Ruination is inside the self and out there, in the non-human environment



11/16

Jewish figure of theAngelusNovus: It is created only to chantthe Glory of God, and thendissolves into nothingness

Benjamin was fascinated by itand bought it 1921. It was one ofhis most valuable possessions.

Fleeing the Nazis in France in1940, he concealed it in his bagand gave it to Georges Bataille,before committing suicide whileon the custody of Francos police

in Spain, threatened to bedelivered to the Nazis



Paul Klee etchedAngelus Novus

in 1920.


12/16



Main descriptive affect

MelancholiaTurkish-Cypriot dialect: Maraz

Rum mal

(Greek property)left behind

Conflict, war, partition

Ganimet(Loot, plunder)Violently assumedproperty is abjectRuined objects

Ruined appropriation

Maraz (Melancholia)Uneasiness, sadness, remorse,depression, regret,lossRuined subjectivities


13/16

The non-linguistic transmission of affect as materiality

Ruined Rum malas ganimet(Abject Greek-Cypriot objects)

Non-human agency of objects: Ruins as actants, affective sources ofmelancholia

Assumed as remnants of a past,destroyed socialityPhantomic, lingering presence ofthe Greek-Cypriots

Post-war environment,misappropriated dwellings andspaces, landscape of ruins,

rhizomatic spread of decompositionand decay, closed borders,exclusive and divided space(partition), isolation from the rest ofthe world

Spatial melancholiaMelancholic objects




14/16

Overcoming melancholia: Loss, Mourning, grieving

Melancholy is grief over the loss of an object of affection (human, non-human)

Mourning is overcoming the loss of the object of affection, the loved one, thebond that has been ruined.

Turkish-Cypriot melancholia seems irredeemableWho or what has been lost? The Greek-Cypriot.Who is the Greek-Cypriot? The enemy

The bond to the Greek-Cypriot has undergone abjectionEnmity has ruined the sociality and conviviality. No bond between enemies.The Greek-Cypriot is the enemy, not a beloved. No bond to be mournedThe Greek-Cypriot is a non-object of affection (Null object)The loss of a non-object of affection is not a loss



Non-grievable melancholic affect Further Marazno resolution as long as interpersonal relations with the Greek-Cypriots areabsent and borders are closed by claims of sovereignty.Reconciliation and open exchange would overcome the ruined affects


15/16

Questions

Are the theoretical choices of Navaro-Yashin the only and best ones? Is she

ruining past approaches when she chooses more recent ones, fashionable tophilosophers but miscomprehended by anthropologists, over more solid and stillrich forms of psychoanalytic, psychological, social and cultural analysis? Does theproliferation of theoretical stances in a single research led to shallow ethnographicdescription or does it really fine-tune it to details? Do the ethnographic subject and

the ethnographic encounter seem to disappear or become more salient?

Are all theories of emotion and feelings really grounded in subjectivistapproaches? Do studies of materiality actually exclude the social construction ofmeaning? Doesnt the affective agency of objects actually presuppose social

constructions of values, morals, and emotions?

Presenting the Turkish-Cypriots as remorseful diminishes the fact how they wereatrociously victimized by the Greek-Cypriot majority? Arent their legitimate politicalaspirations of self-determination banalized, however forged their state seems tothem? (Isnt this perpetuating the Orientalist narrative of European nationalismsagainst the Turkish, and geopolitical claims to the Mediterranean?). Do theyidentify closer with the Turkey homeland or with the island as a whole? Ismelancholia just the other side of the coin of a proud ethnicity? What is the Greek-Cypriot relation to the Turkish-Cypriot ruins in the south? Are they also regretfuland seeking reconciliation? Or does the emphasis on ruined material culture show

future conflicts over land and property even after borders are open?

Q ti


16/16

QuestionsCan you think of any other examples of the affective discharge of objects or theenvironment that are central to a given sociality? How are economies of affectobjectified in your collectivity? Does the circulation of these objectified affectsconstruct your own identity?

Can you think of how ruination offers another perspective and narrative to themonumental and official constructions of a national or ethnic identity? Dont youthink that the affects behind nationalism, patriotism, national heroes, are those

that ruined other claims to identity, space, and ethnic pride? Do struggles forrecognition always end in divisionary conflicts?

What are the stakes when the history of a population is constructed along thelines of events accounting for ruination or events proudly accounting for creation

and birth? Is this related to the social organization of denial?

Considering that abjection is an othering process, what do you discover to be theabject in your own collective belonging? How does the presence of this abject inyour subjectivity and environment manifest in your sociality and your inter-group

relations? What affects stem from this abjection?

Can you think of examples of how different societies have overcome, dealt,grieved or failed to mourn their losses after ruination (natural disasters,catastrophes, colonization, segregation, conflicts, genocide)?

Does the difficulty to mourn their loss among the Turkish-Cypriots convinclyaccount for the political inaction of their leaders or grassroots movements?

Cyprus Presentation

Documents