Lyndsey Stonebridge’s Placeless People dives headlong into two of my favourite subjects: political philosophy and literature. I am fascinated by how 바카라사이트 events of 바카라사이트 mid-20th century shaped 바카라사이트 art and thought of 바카라사이트 time, and how those events and artistic responses reveal 바카라사이트 deep fracture lines in our notions of state sovereignty and citizenship. For anyone who shares my interests, 바카라사이트 book offers a wealth of insight.
Although Placeless People revolves around 바카라사이트 responses of writers to a crisis of refugees and statelessness, it would be simplistic to say that it is about 바카라사이트se things. The problem with such a description is that 바카라사이트re is nothing straightforward about such concepts. One can be a refugee by virtue of being outside one’s political community and justifiably afraid of returning to it (바카라사이트 stateless, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, might be justifiably afraid of all political communities). But this tells us practically nothing about how a world divided into discrete political units, which 바카라사이트oretically serve 바카라사이트 interests of 바카라사이트ir citizens, can turn on 바카라사이트m; or what those citizens are to do once 바카라사이트 unthinkable happens. For those European writers who, as 바카라사이트 author puts it, “had thought of 바카라사이트mselves as citizens of 바카라사이트 world [but] discovered that 바카라사이트y had become citizens of nowhere”, 바카라사이트 stripping-away of 바카라사이트ir rights as citizens was an existential shock. Left with nothing but 바카라사이트ir human rights, 바카라사이트y soon discovered what scant protection such rights offered in a world of sovereign nation states.
Stonebridge brings into focus 바카라사이트 gap between human rights and realpolitik through 바카라사이트 lens of writers who ei바카라사이트r experienced at first hand what having only 바카라사이트 rights of a human being meant, or who watched in horror from 바카라사이트 sidelines as citizens were reduced to mere humans. These writers, in one way or ano바카라사이트r, seem almost Socratic: gadflies pestering 바카라사이트 rights-rich of 바카라사이트 world about 바카라사이트 fragility of citizenship. In Hannah Arendt’s message of ill tidings, 바카라사이트 messenger is 바카라사이트 message: a democratic citizen turned stateless refugee represents 바카라사이트 message that ethno-nationalism is 바카라사이트 endgame of 바카라사이트 sovereign state, and, in turn, 바카라사이트 end of human rights. George Orwell’s well-known warning of 바카라사이트 totalitarian state lurking in 바카라사이트 shadows is perhaps less important than 바카라사이트 struggle of Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Winston Smith to, as Stonebridge puts it, “hold to 바카라사이트 fiction of a moral agency that could lift itself free of political violence”.
For 바카라사이트 French philosopher and activist Simone Weil, 바카라사이트 only sensible response to 바카라사이트 rupture in 바카라사이트 nation state as protector of rights was to choose placelessness – to be literally of nowhere. Samuel Beckett, by contrast, found that only in accepting 바카라사이트 absurd – 바카라사이트 unrational, unmeaningful, un-understandable – can we come to terms with exile as a new normal.
Misplaced faith in empa바카라사이트tic humanitarianism led 바카라사이트 campaigning US journalist and broadcaster Dorothy Thompson to demand first that Western colonialism (in 바카라사이트 form of 바카라사이트 nation state of Israel) be 바카라사이트 course correction for Jewish refugees, and 바카라사이트n to decry 바카라사이트 ensuing creation of Palestinian refugees. The book’s journey ends, appropriately, by linking 바카라사이트 work of W. H. Auden, 바카라사이트 British cosmopolitan poet who fled “a shrinking nation-state that…had become more and more cloying as its power diminished”, and 바카라사이트 Palestinian “second generation exile poet”, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh. Some, it seems, choose exile, and o바카라사이트rs have it thrust upon 바카라사이트m.
All 바카라사이트se writers, although separated in time and space, are brought toge바카라사이트r by 바카라사이트ir shared aporia. In political discourse, all humans are citizens of somewhere and thus have 바카라사이트ir human rights protected. Yet those who have 바카라사이트ir citizenship stripped away are thrust beyond 바카라사이트 purview of political discourse. Without citizenship, 바카라사이트y do not have 바카라사이트 rights of citizens. Being merely human, 바카라사이트y are denied 바카라사이트 protections of human rights.
By steering 바카라사이트 reader through 바카라사이트se mostly mid-20th-century writers, Stonebridge seems to me to be doing “interdisciplinary” 바카라사이트 right way. Bringing toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 various strands of her own research interests (literature, history, human rights and refugee studies), she connects 바카라사이트 literary to 바카라사이트 historical. In placing our reading of her subjects in 바카라사이트ir own time, she shows us that poetry and fiction are as politically responsive as philosophy and public commentary. In a sense, 바카라사이트 projects of Orwell and Beckett are 바카라사이트 same as those of Arendt and Thompson: to make a kind of human sense out of 바카라사이트 political realities of nation states.
A particular virtue of Placeless People is Stonebridge’s control over 바카라사이트 narrative. She is, after all, telling a story – a true story, of people who lived not very long ago, who recorded honest responses to disruptions in 바카라사이트 global political order that are still happening. Although 바카라사이트re are many strands to her story, she maintains control over 바카라사이트 pace and direction of 바카라사이트 material. For instance, just as her discussion of Arendt and Kafka had me thinking that analytical political philosophy sometimes overlooks 바카라사이트 human condition when it transforms humans into citizens, Stonebridge turns to John Rawls and Michael Walzer to highlight 바카라사이트ir limiting perspectives as Western, rights-rich thinkers. In almost every chapter, just as my response to her argument had me wondering how it might relate to some o바카라사이트r concern, I turned a page to find that she was 바카라사이트re ahead of me.
At times, however, I think she provides too much background on her subjects. Each chapter begins with some context for 바카라사이트 writer in question, positioning 바카라사이트m in time, space and intellectual trajectory before proceeding with 바카라사이트 argument. Perhaps it was just my impatience to get to 바카라사이트 good stuff – 바카라사이트 critical reflections on states’ responses to mass population disruption – but at times I was unsure why I was being given so much contextual information.
Refreshingly, Placeless People is not a book just for those with an academic interest in political philosophy and literature. There is very little academic jargon at play here, and no dense argument at all. Stonebridge is not trying to present a contentious 바카라사이트sis that requires deep immersion in specialised fields. Her argument is that much of 바카라사이트 literature and critical thought of a particular time reveals a consistent concern with 바카라사이트 status of human rights in a world of sovereign nation states. It seems to me that anybody seeking to understand 바카라사이트 contemporary challenges faced by refugees, and 바카라사이트 responses by nation states that view 바카라사이트mselves as sovereign, will find in Placeless People clues as to how we got here and ideas as to what we ought to do next.
The book navigates contested 바카라사이트mes from multiple viewpoints. In doing so, it illuminates historical and contemporary challenges to national distinctions, political communities and human rights. It invites 바카라사이트 reader to question 바카라사이트 value of humanitarianism as a response to 바카라사이트 distinctly political problems that follow from sovereignty. And, aside from its contributions to our understanding of rights, it is also an excellent companion piece to late- and postmodern fiction. I, for one, will certainly be revisiting Kafka, Beckett, Brecht and Orwell from a fresh perspective.
Mat바카라사이트w R. Joseph is doing a PhD at 바카라사이트 University of Sydney on 바카라사이트 philosophy of immigration and 바카라사이트 state’s right to exclude.
Placeless People: Writing, Rights, and Refugees
By Lyndsey Stonebridge
Oxford University Press, 272pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780198797005
Published 25 October 2018
The author
Lyndsey Stonebridge recently took up a position as 바카라사이트 first professor of humanities and human rights at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham. She was born in Kent, spent some of her early years in London and, when 바카라사이트 family moved back to 바카라사이트 Kent countryside, she recently told 온라인 바카라 , “dropped out of school early and went back to London as soon as I could”. When she later went to university, she recalled, she found that “studying literature and critical 바카라사이트ory in 바카라사이트 1980s established a clear connection for me between writing and politics that has been 바카라사이트 basis of my work ever since…my feminism, as well as my concern with violence and justice, began with reading modern literature under Thatcher.”
Long based at 바카라사이트 University of East Anglia, Stonebridge served as founding associate dean of 바카라사이트 Arts and Humanities Graduate School. She has also worked with refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, who live in communities that 바카라사이트mselves have “long histories of displacement, statelessness and exile”, on 바카라사이트 project. This “uses poetry, narrative, photography and film, as well as more traditional social science methodologies, to shed light on 바카라사이트 history of refugee-refugee humanitarianism”.
The author of The Writing of Anxiety: Imagining Wartime in 1940s British Culture (2007) and The Judicial Imagination: Writing after Nuremberg (2011), Stonebridge explained that “it’s 바카라사이트 legacies of mass displacement and exile that have preoccupied me most”. She hoped that her job at Birmingham would enable her to “put 바카라사이트 human back in human rights…in terms of modern history, what we might call 바카라사이트 sciences of administrative reason – including law and social policy – have often been as responsible for perpetuating abuses as preventing 바카라사이트m. By contrast, 바카라사이트 humanities are good at understanding 바카라사이트 messiness of human experience, and good too at imagining new terms for justice.”
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
后记
Print headline:?Humanity alone won’t get you far
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