Thanatopolitics and the Constant Smallness of Being: Necropower and Bare Life in Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin
Abstract
Foucault and Agamben cogently argue that modern democracies continue to perpetuate violence and systematise the exclusion of the marginalised beings through entrenched ulterior motives and power dynamics, generally seen through thanatopolitics. Thanatopolitics, a term commonly used to refer to the exercise of power, determines whose lives are preserved and whose are rendered disposable. Such perpetuation of dehumanisation can often be seen in contemporary fiction. By taking Palestinian fiction, Mornings in Jenin, as an example, this paper examines the interplay between necropower, biopower, surveillance, and the state of exception in shaping the politics of the body. Specifically, this paper examines how the body becomes a central site of control, resistance, memory, and erasure under conditions of prolonged occupation and militarised governance. Through a close reading concerning strategies of disempowerment, stories about concentration camps, refugees, and above all, the living dead are first presented. Secondly, this paper analyses the lived experiences of Palestinians grappling with the unending, wide-range violence, evoking minutiae of harsh realities under emergency through the description of Palestinians’ wounded and mutilated bodies. Finally, this paper discloses the many ways in which the Palestinian struggle against dispossession and displacement is humanised, sparking meaningful conversations about the Palestinian culture of resistance against de(atrophy), a sense of decay, a loss of function, or a reduction of the significance of the Palestinian people. By centralising the body within necthanatopolitical discourses, this paper offers a stark contrast against available postcolonial inquiries, presenting new insights into literary strategies deployed to reclaim agency amidst systemic death-worlds.
Keywords: dehumanisation; Mornings in Jenin; Palestinian fiction; state power; thanatopolitics
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