Abstract:
Since the Enlightenment period, Europeans consider the political subject to be a rational and autonomous subject. European democracies built upon that tradition – a tradition which is undeniably linked to colonialism and the Othering of People of Colour and Indigenous People as well as of women. These processes of Othering consolidate the male, bourgeois subject as norm. Today, the construction of a legitimate political subject of democracy is at stake. Drawing on recent, empirical examples from media and activism, I will argue that political subjectivity in practice systematically opposes the idea of an autonomous and rational subject. On the contrary, political subjectivity in the context of grassroots politics as well as hegemonic institutions very often refers to emotions and relationality. I will put forth an alternative understanding of the political subject using affect theory and postcolonial theory as a critical theoretical framework. By underlining relationality as an affective as well as a historical and social matter, the paper focuses on current dynamics of constructing the political subject in Germany, especially with regard to debates on refugee and migration politics. Since 2015, these debates have turned into a core challenge to democratic values: Whose rights are acknowledged within the democratic framework? Whose political subjectivity is put up for discussion? Following these questions, I will retrace the current constructions of the political subject and put it into dialogue, incorporating both the above-mentioned prototype and alternative logics derived from postcolonial and affect theory.
