Affective Nationalism: Bodies, Materials and Encounters with the Nation in Azerbaijan

Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2017 Affective nationalism: bodies, materials and encounters with the nation in Azerbaijan Militz, Elisabeth Abstract: This thesis unpacks the ways in which nationalism – understood as a feeling of national belonging and alienation – unfolds in moments of affective encounter between different bodies, objects and places in Azerbaijan. Focusing on the development of attachments and detachments to nationalising beliefs, corporeal experiences and everyday routines, rather than expanding on how narratives about the nation are represented, is relevant in times of a global trend to fight for the persistence of singular nations instead of dissolving national boundaries. Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork, consisting mainly of observant participation within families, field notes from attendance at public holidays and commemoration ceremonies and qualitative interviews conducted between 2012 and 2014 in Azerbaijan, the aim of the thesis is to explore the ways in which moments of bodily encounter perpetuate banal enactments and experiences of national belonging and alienation. On a conceptual level, I combine feminist perspectives on Spinozist-Deleuzian affect with Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to develop my concept of affective nationalism – the banal aﬀirmation of the national emerging in moments of encounter between different bodies and objects. I propose to examine the emergence of affective nationalism in Azerbaijan through an in-depth analysis of four processes: embodying nationhood, orienting different bodies and objects across national space and time, binding these oriented bodies and objects together and persisting desires to identify with the nation. On a methodological level, I experiment with an affective methodology that attempts to approach the contingencies, potentialities and elusiveness of affective nationalism. Through an autoethnographic research approach I advance the method of affective writing that intends to presence, rather than present, research material and remains open for continuous encounters and the emergence of bodies, objects and places constituting nationalisms. On an empirical level, my research in Azerbaijan shows that, independent of elite-led nation- building propaganda, people in Azerbaijan feel invested and thus enjoy their national identifications through performing specific national rituals, commemorating martyrs or relating to the brother nation Turkey. Encounters with corporeal practices emerging through national folk dancing or through cultivating physical beauty ideals turn bodies into national bodies. The appropriate enactment of nationalised ideals of female dancing and female corporeality, promises feeling national belonging. Beyond a shared somatic pleasure in celebrating holidays and in encountering cultural customs, collective intensities of feeling pain and pride in remembering historical killings merge different people in contemporary Azerbaijan into experiences of national community. Despite past tragedies and the felt incompleteness in identifying as Azerbaijani, people continue to enjoy their experience of national identification. Especially the emergence of Turkey as the national other engenders an enduring happiness of identifying with Azerbaijan. The thesis advances geographic scholarship on nationalism by suggesting to study nationalism not as a given, but as a potential and an emergent experience of living in a world divided into different nations. I propose to focus on moments of bodily encounter, on bodies’ different capacities to affect and to be affected and on the spatialand temporal contextualities of national becomings, if we want to understand the persistence of nationalism. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-148790 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Militz, Elisabeth. Affective nationalism: bodies, materials and encounters with the nation in Azerbaijan. 2017, University of Zurich, Faculty of Science. 2 Affective Nationalism Bodies, Materials and Encounters with the Nation in Azerbaijan Dissertation zur Erlangung der naturwissenschaftlichen Doktorwürde (Dr. sc. nat.) vorgelegt der Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Zürich von Elisabeth Militz aus Deutschland Promotionskommission Prof. Dr. Martin Müller (Vorsitz und Leitung der Dissertation) Prof. Dr. Anna Secor Prof. Dr. Benedikt Korf Zürich, 2017 The picture shows the Azerbaijani tricolour in the centre in the back and the flags of two Azerbaijani opposition parties. In the front a participant raises his hand to the sky. While pressing thumb and the two middle fingers together he splays out the forefinger and the little finger. He forms the wolf sign – a physical gesture signaling Turkish right-wing nationalism, or, to be more precise, ultranationalism. I took the photo on 28 May 2013 (the Republic Day of Azerbaijan) in Novxanı (Azerbaijan) during a political rally. Summary Summary This thesis unpacks the ways in which nationalism – understood as a feeling of national belonging and alienation – unfolds in moments of affective encounter between different bodies, objects and places in Azerbaijan. Focusing on the development of attachments and detachments to nationalising beliefs, corporeal experiences and everyday routines, rather than expanding on how narratives about the nation are represented, is relevant in times of a global trend to fight for the persistence of singular nations instead of dissolving national boundaries. Based on eight months of ethnographic field work, consisting mainly of observant participation within families, field notes from attendance at public holidays and commemoration ceremonies and qualitative interviews conducted between 2012 and 2014 in Azerbaijan, the aim of the thesis is to explore the ways in which moments of bodily encounter perpetuate banal enactments and experiences of national belonging and alienation. On a conceptual level, I combine feminist perspectives on Spinozist-Deleuzian affect with Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to develop my concept of affective nationalism – the banal affirmation of the national emerging in moments of encounter between different bodies and objects. I propose to examine the emergence of affective nationalism in Azerbaijan through an in- depth analysis of four processes: embodying nationhood, orienting different bodies and objects across national space and time, binding these oriented bodies and objects together and persisting desires to identify with the nation. On a methodological level, I experiment with an affective methodology that attempts to approach the contingencies, potentialities and elusiveness of affective nationalism. Through an autoethnographic research approach I advance the method of affective writing that intends to presence, rather than present, research material and remains open for continuous encounters and the emergence of bodies, objects and places constituting nationalisms. On an empirical level, my research in Azerbaijan shows that, independent of elite-led nation-building propaganda, people in Azerbaijan feel invested and thus enjoy their national identifications through performing specific national rituals, commemorating martyrs or relating to the brother nation Turkey. Encounters with corporeal practices emerging through national folk dancing or through cultivating physical beauty ideals turn bodies into national bodies. The appropriate enactment of nationalised ideals of female dancing and female corporeality, promises feeling national belonging. i Summary Beyond a shared somatic pleasure in celebrating holidays and in encountering cultural customs, collective intensities of feeling pain and pride in remembering historical killings merge different people in contemporary Azerbaijan into experiences of national community. Despite past tragedies and the felt incompleteness in identifying as Azerbaijani, people continue to enjoy their experience of national identification. Especially the emergence of Turkey as the national other engenders an enduring happiness of identifying with Azerbaijan. The thesis advances geographic scholarship on nationalism by suggesting to study nationalism not as a given, but as a potential and an emergent experience of living in a world divided into different nations. I propose to focus on moments of bodily encounter and the spatial and temporal contextualities of national becomings, in order to understand the ways in which bodies’ different capacities to affect and to be affected are of central importance for the emergence and the persistence of nationalism. ii Zusammenfassung Zusammenfassung Mit der vorliegenden Dissertation zeige ich am Beispiel von Aserbaidschan, wie sich Nationalismus, verstanden als Gefühl nationaler Zugehörigkeit, aber auch Entfremdung, in Momenten des Aufeinandertreffens verschiedener Körper, Objekte und Plätze zeigt. In einer Zeit, in der das häufig hoch emotionalisierte Ringen um den Fortbestand einzelner Nationen stärker in den Vordergrund tritt, als der Wunsch nach Auflösung nationaler Grenzen, ist der Blick auf nationale Erzählungen zwar relevant, scheint aber zu kurz gegriffen. Deshalb richtet die vorliegende Arbeit den Fokus auf die Prozesshaftigkeit der Entstehung von Nationalismus, um zu betonen und herauszuarbeiten, wie in scheinbar banalen alltäglichen Routinen und körperlichen Erfahrungen

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