Cruel Optimism <i>as</i> an Ecology of Powers
THEORY CULTURE & SOCIETY, cilt.42, sa.2, 2025 (AHCI, SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 42 Sayı: 2
- Basım Tarihi: 2025
- Doi Numarası: 10.1177/02632764241268164
- Dergi Adı: THEORY CULTURE & SOCIETY
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, ABI/INFORM, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Gender Studies Database, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Philosopher's Index, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Violence & Abuse Abstracts
- Anahtar Kelimeler: cruel optimism, (de)subjectivities, grievability, pastoral power, political spirituality, pre-emptive power, sovereign power
- Marmara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
How do the flexibilized scenes of cruel optimism crystallize and resonate with the situational displays of crises as a governmental oversight? Centering around this question, the paper aims to offer a critical fulcrum for problematic attachments toward future-mediated fantasies in the aftermath of the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. It starts with evaluating how the pastoral mode was applied as a cruel diagram of positivity by the Turkish government through the omnipresent prowess of the media, which presents an ‘ordinaryizing’ affect in regularizing the fatalistic discourses and relief efforts. It then continues to analyze the retributive discourses by the politicians and officials that triggered the oscillatory porosity among varied (de)subjectivities, toggling between sovereign misrecognitions and exclusions, as well as spiritually vivifying the optimistic barriers of cruelty. Lastly, it discusses in what ways the hopeful projections reconciled with the preemption by the dominant scientific narratives paradoxically prolong the preexistence of uncertainty and trust.