Is There a Secular Tradition? On Treason, Government, and Truth

<p>“Because the secular is so much part of our modern life, it is not easy to grasp it directly,” writes Talal Asad, in the introduction to his <em>Formations of the Secular</em>. This thesis attempts to obliquely engage with secular power through a concept that has been at the center of much contention in our political present: <em>treason. </em>Taking the failed coup of July 16and the ensuing purge against the Gülen movement in Turkey as its points of departure, it seeks to broach some of the constitutive and operative logics of the modern nation-state. Inquiring into the State’s perennial presupposition of conspirators from within, in addition to its correlative techniques devised to preemptively identify and expose those subjects, it gestures to arrive at a better understanding of some of the <em>productive</em> qualities of secular power.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Master

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Middle Eastern Studies

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Uğurlu, Ali M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Samira Haj

• Continental Philosophy
• Near Eastern Languages and Societies
• Political Theory
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Treason
• Governmentality
• Power
• Subjectivity
• Secularism
• Islam
• Tradition

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2098

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-3155