Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 10 (2017) 272–292 MEJCC brill.com/mjcc Eulogies for the Resistance Hizbullah, Syria and the ‘Crisis Imaginary’ Jack Joy soas, University of London, uk
[email protected] Abstract Recent studies into the notion of crisis argue that affective states of insecurity can offer an instrumental utility to elites seeking to sustain existing power relations. Through their discursive construction, such imaginative landscapes help legitimize previously illegitimate forms of political action, rationalize heightened forms of collective sacri- fice and instill new disciplinary technologies among political subjects. Building on this growing body of scholarly work, in this study I use critical discourse analysis (cda) to address Hizbullah’s mobilization of a specific ‘crisis imaginary’ as part of its efforts to legitimize its ongoing involvement in the Syrian civil war.This perceptual regime works to uphold a ‘state of exception’ for Hizbullah, sustain the practice of martyrdom as a form of Girardian ‘mimetic desire’ and structure a wider moral universe that continues to bind the party’s audience to the resistance society while maintaining their contin- ued docility. Keywords Hizbullah – Syria – crisis imaginary – resistance – Nasrallah – mobilization Introduction Walid El-Houri argues that Hizbullah’s ‘emergence and existence within a structurally unstable social, political and geographical context means that the presence of a crisis has always been underlying their political action’ (El- Houri 2012: 57).