Sovereign attachments : masculinity, Muslimness, and affective politics in Pakistan

Sovereign Attachments rethinks sovereignty by moving it out of the exclusive domain of geopolitics and legality and into cultural, religious, and gender studies. Through a close reading of a stunning array of cultural texts produced by the Pakistani state and the Pakistan-based Taliban, Shenila Khoja-Moolji theorizes sovereignty as an ongoing attachment that is negotiated in public culture. Both the state and the Taliban recruit publics into relationships of trust, protection, and fraternity by summoning models of Islamic masculinity, mobilizing kinship metaphors, and marshalling affect. In particular, masculinity and Muslimness emerge as salient performances through which sovereign attachments are harnessed. The book shifts the discussion of sovereignty away from questions about absolute dominance to ones about shared repertoires, entanglements, and co-constitution. "Sovereign Attachments rethinks sovereignty by moving it out of the exclusive domain of geopolitics and legality, and into cultural, religious, and gender studies. Through a close reading of a stunning array of cultural texts produced by the Pakistani state and the Pakistan-based Taliban, Khoja-Moolji theorizes sovereignty as an ongoing attachment negotiated in public culture. Both the state and the Taliban recruit publics into relationships of trust, protection, and fraternity by summoning models of Islamic masculinity, mobilizing kinship metaphors, and marshalling affect. In particular, masculinity and Muslimness emerge as salient performances through which sovereign attachments are harnessed. The book shifts the discussion of sovereignty away from questions around absolute dominance to ones about shared repertoires, entanglements, and co-constitution"-- Provided by publisher Cover Sovereign Attachments Title Copyright Dedication CONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Public Lives of Sovereignty PART ONE SOVER EIGN ISLAMO-MASCULINITIES 1 • Narrating the Sovereign 2 • Identity, Alterity 3 • Competing Sovereigns PART TWO STYLIZING POLITICAL ATTACHMENTS 4 • Subordinated Femininities 5 • Kinship Metaphors 6 • Managing Affect Conclusion: Imbricated Sovereignties Notes Bibliography Index