About this Social Sciences article
Nation-States, the Race-Religion Constellation, and Diasporic Political Communities: Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, and Paul Gilroy by Anya Topolski is a Social Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.
In Who Sings the Nation-State?, co-written with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Judith Butler identifies the paradox between the seemingly global decline of the nation-state and the steadfast strength of its genealogical force. According to Butler, "Arendt allows us to realise that this may also be because the nation-state as a form was faulty from the start." In the first section of the article, I focus on Butler's analysis of Israel/Palestine as a failed nation-state and seek to identify its faulty start. I propose that the nation has been masked by the racereligion constellation in the creation of the Westphalian race-state and identify this as the "faulty start" of the nation-state in European history. The term "race-religion constellation" refers to the connection or coconstitution of the categories of race and "religion" and the practice of classifying people into races according to categories we now associate with the term "religion." I contend that it is this genealogical force of the nation that frames Israel/Palestine, which was, and is, Europe's offspring, and at times its prodigal son. In the third and final section I discuss alternatives to the nation-state by means of the
It is typically read by researchers, students, and practitioners in Social Sciences.
- Author
- Anya Topolski
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis Group; Informa UK (Taylor & Francis); Taylor & Francis; Informa UK Limited (ISSN 1084-8770)
- Published
- 2020
- Language
- EN
- Field
- Social Sciences