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    Mcclintock - No Longer in A Future Heaven: Gender, Race and Nationalism

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    Mcclintock - No Longer in a future heaven: Gender, race and nationalism

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    CULTURAL + POLITICS A series from the Social Text Collective ‘Aimed a abroad intedsciplinary audlence, these volumes seek o intervene in debates bout the political direction of curent theory and practice by combining contemporary analysis with a more ational sense of hisorial and socioeconomic evaluation 11, Dangerous Hatsons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspect ‘Ange McClintock, Aamir Mf, and lla Shobat, editors 10, spectacles of Realism Gender, Body, Genre ‘Margaret Cohen and Christopher Prendergast, edtors 9. CultralSatersalis: On Raymond Wiluams ‘Christopher renders, ecto 8, Sofas Ensembles: Theater and Sate $1 Gua and Nicaragua andy Martin 7. The Adminstration of Aesthetics: Gensorsbi,Poltical Criticism, and ibe Public Sere Richard Bue, editor 6. Fuar ofa Quer Planet, Queer Politics and Social Theory Michael Warner, edior 5. The Phantom Pubic Sphere Bruce Robins, eltor 4 On Badge: The Criss of Contemporary Latin Amercan Culture George Yédice, Jean Franco and Juan Flores, lors 3 Tochnocudture ‘Constance Penley and Andrew Ros, cons 2 Inelectuals Aestbetics, Plitis, Academics Bruce Rohhing, eter 1. Untersal Abandon? The Polit of Postmodernism “Andrew Ross editor DANGEROUS LIAISONS Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, and Ella Shohat, editors (for the Social Text Collective) University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London 88 Rob Nixon 48 neal Ascheson, Games wt Sbadous (Loca Rvs Books, 1989, 281 44 for an instsive eenone of Gaers problems see “2tinichy and Puudo-ctnichy ia the ‘skein Vi, Croton of Talon, 398-413, 45, Fora deal anal of hese vanes, see especialy Shla Mars, Th Ambit of De ondoce cs, Cas, and Natonaom in Twos Coury Su aca tive. Joba Hopi ‘niety Pre 198 "is Fora mugeive scour of uthlese fers, se Mane, rahers Bon of Warr Bid 47a pene in 191, Babee angacd athe cll 1 bane bearing of cal weapons By “Zt tan nuit 9 my mnhood. Is an aw he tulad of every Zl man (que sx Mare, ‘Brot Born of Wrior Had, 69. Ce King Good Zee’ sence Hat "ae ANC seks {0 dep Zaha me of thir mao by aking aa) tht etal meapos” (Wet Mtl May 31 Isp) Fora sry sugueatve arly of the Takata pretium on mantis ejins the bucklop of dag he fay, ae Campbel “eanig to KI” Sf “BE Manger Boies Message of he Dees” Fanci Mat, Oaber 28, 1952 “. Spec dered en September 23 1980 (quoted in Geta lar, "Hy ad Dipeasin of ‘he Wence in Nat Inka’ le tn Neotsng Pia Peace” Sota fsce 18, 08.12 199, 10, 50. Maogosuhu Butler, “nkatha, Zunes and the Hite,” Fuses Newser of the Praga for ican Sts Nortnwesrn Daves 4 (9929, 31 ia, pared 55 Qhowed Mare, “Hwy and Dimension, 72-78, 51 He Gunner apd Mahia Gala, es Mo’ Zu Popular Pras Ct Lansing NOchigan State Univers Pres, 1990; A Salas, Nation, Bln In Nas Black Working Class in hula Date, The Sots of Souter fa nthe 19th and 2 Cour, vo 1 Landen. Ie o£ Commonweah Ses, 1950), 257-78 55 Paul Panwa “Serio Epi” BDC, December 26, 199 36. Thocrpcn, "Confort of Fatale,” 15, 37 See TD. Alen, Seth's Blood Was Vib Rr ah 193) 34 3a Thre has of la, been esate resent tte ope these ofthe Zan Expice. See ‘oraya Baton, “The Charstr and Objcs of Chk Recomidrtion of the Making of Shai as Dt Mot,” ad lan cobb, “Te Mean: Reb a Jr of con try (Q992. See ako Caray Hamm and join Wright "The Deinings of Zaks Kent and Mary de ‘as ad Pauls Zu, “ee Mobaaon:RwaZlas Pali of Seen” a in Inder Sob Mie 20, 03 ses 189 BAB, O52 5. Blcae Saba “Racen apd Nandi” a ene Haba and tame! Walls, ac Nation, and Class Ambion dna (Loon: Yoo, 191), #8. {The memey of Anew terol dposseson an of the Wweny-eight thousand who ed in Beh concensaten camps dung te Ango-Boer War cane psychology cial the Dinkaers elaboration ofan ete pana asa cf hemseves a 4 sflewng colonized prope Su was nee only Arhanes who die in thse camps Ure were foun thousand secon ‘enceion camp det among Affine Afcan workers — predominant teat ames ‘wer nered ne numbers Se Doug Oakes, el, usa sory af South Aca Cape Toms Reader’ Digs, 1982), 26. GL The nomsamhars ha themelves been conquered by the Hhopian Zap a he late noe tech ceniry add slr ur the Arar pole of Chistensaton apd coerce asta, Tan indeed othe hopin atuopolgi Alex Sat for devin ty tein the cones of [Bhi aye opera (i Ema Gener, Maton ad Aaeonaton (Oxford Ras ache, 989) 32. the Unsed ‘suey, Attala, ed sore Cather sates std capi to la grr, een thet Cleo ay beeen itera as desea of be maton alae (Gh Emotenan, “Wht Ina Nation” ane Marin ‘Thom, in Homi Bab, Netiow and aration amon: Route, 1950), 1 Chapter 4 “No Longer in a Future Heaven”: Gender, Race and Nationalism. Anne McClintock ‘The tides of tbe Blackfoos confederacy, hving along what ts mow known asthe United ‘States/Canadian border, levis nonbeard aftr a raiding tack, watched with growing ‘amazement as the solders of te United States army came toa sudden, magical sep. ‘Focng soutbuavds they saw tbe same thing apenas the Canadian mountiesreined ‘o.an abrupt bal. They came 10 call this visible demarcaion the "medicine line. ‘sharon OfBien All nationalisms are gendered: all are invented; and all are dangerous — dangerous, rot in Erie Hobsbavms sense of having to be opposed but in the sense that they represent relations to political power and to the technologies of violence." As such, nations are not simply phantasmagora of the mind) as systems of cultural represen- tation whereby people come to imagine a shared experience of identification with an extended community, they are historical practices through which social diffe ‘ence is both invented and performed. Nationalism becomes in this way constitutive ‘of people's identities through soctal contests that are frequently violent and always ‘gendered. Yet if, following Benedict Anderson, the invented nature of nationalism ‘has recently found wide theoretical currency, explorations of the gendering of the national imaginary have been. conspicuously paltry "Nations are contested systems of cultural representation that limit and legitimize people's access to the resources of the nation-state, but despite many national- iss" ideological investment in the idea of popular unity, nations have historically amounted 10 the sanctioned insttutionalization of gender difference. No nation in the world grants women and men the same access 10 the rights and resources ‘of the nation-state. Yet, with the notable exception of Frantz Fanon, male theo- fists have seldom felt moved to explore how nationalism is implicated in gender power, As a result, as Cynthia Enloe remarks, nationalisms have “typically sprung {from masculinized memory, masculinized humiliation and masculinized hope. Not only are the needs of the nation typically identifed withthe frustrations and aspirations of men, bur the representation of male national power depends on the flor construction of gender dilference. All too often in male nationalisms, gen- der difference between Women and men serves 10 symbolically define the lnits ‘of national difference and power between mers Even Fanon, who at other moments knew better, writes: “The look that the native tums on the settler town is 2 look of 9 90 Anne McClintock lust... st atthe settlers table, to sleep inthe settlers bed, with his wife i possible. ‘The colonized man is an envious man." For Fanon, both colonizer and colonized are here unthinkingly male, and the Manichaean agon of decolonization Js waged lover the territoriality of female, domestic space. “Exchided! from direct action 25 national ctizens, women are subsumed syrnboli= cally into the national body poli as its boundary and metaphor limit: “Singapore Bil, you're a great way to fly.” Women are typically constructed as the symbolic beaters of the nation but are denied any dizect relation to national agency. AS Elleke Boehmer notes, the ‘motherland” of male nationalism thus may “aot signify home! and ‘source’ to women. Boehimer notes that the male role in the nationalist sce- nario is typically “meronymic’; that is, men are contiguous with each other ancl with ‘the national whole, Women, by contrast, appear “in a metaphoric or symbolic role. ‘Yet ts also cnacial to note that not all meen enjoy the privilege of political contiguity swith each other in the national community. In an important intervention, Nira YuvalDavis and Floya Anthias identify five major ways in which women have been implicated in nationalism: 4. As biological reproducers of the members of national collectivities 2. As reproducers of the boundaries of national groups (through restrictions on sexual or marital relations) 3, Asctive transmitters and producers of the national culture 4, As symbolic signfiess of national difference 5, As active participants in national struggles? ‘Nationalism is thus constituted from the very beginning as a gendered discourse and cannot be understood without a theory of gender power, Nonetheless, theories of nationalism reveal a double disavowal, If male theorists are typically indifferent t0 the gendering of nations, feminist analyses of nationalism have been lamentably few and far benween, White feminists, in particular, have been slow to recognize nation- alism as a feminist sue. In much Western, socialist feminism, as Yuval-Davis and “Amthias point out, “issues of ethnicity and nationality have tended to be ignored. "* A feminist theory of nationalism might thus be strategically fourfold: investigating the gentlered formation of sanctioned male theories; ringing into historical visibility ‘women’s active cultural and politcal participation in national formations; bringing nationalist institutions into csitcal relation with other social structures and institi= tions; and at the same time paying scrupulous attention to the structures of racial, ‘ethnic, and class power that continue to bedevil privileged forms of feminism. ‘The National Family of Man: A Domestic Genealogy {A paradox lies atthe heart of most national narratives. Nations are frequently figured through the iconography of familial and domestic space, The tetm “nation” derives from nati: to be born. We speak of nations as “motherlands" and “fathestands.” Foreigners “adap” countries tha are not their native homes and are naturalized into "No Longer in a Future Heaven” 91 {he national “family.” We talk of the “family of nations," of “homelands” and *native* lands, In Britain, immigration matters are dealt with at the Home Office in the United Sates, the president and his wife are called the fist family. Winnie Mandela was, until her fll from grace, honored as South Afvica’s “mother of the nation.” In this way, despite their myriad differences, nations are symbolically figured as domestic genealogies. Yet, 28 I have argued elsewhere, since the mid-nineteenth century, st least in the West, che family tself has been figured as the antithesis of history? ‘The family trope is important for nationalism in atleast two ways. Fist, it offers a natural” igure for sanctioning national bierarcby within a putative organle unity of interests, Second, ic offers a “natural’ wope for figuring national time. After 1859 and the advent of social Darwinism, Britain's emesgent national naraive took shape increasingly around the image ofthe evolutionary family of man. The family offered an indispensable metaphoric figure by which national difference could be shaped into a single historical genesis narrative, Yet a curious paradox emerged. The family 8.4 metaphor offered a single genesis narative for national history while, at the same time, the family as an institution became void of history and excluded from national power. The family became, at one and the same time, both the organizing igure for national history and its antihess In the course of the nineteenth century, the social function of the great service families was displaced onto the national bureaucracies, while the image ofthe family 1was projected onto these nationalisms as their shadowy, naturalized form. Because the subordination of woman to man and child to adult was deemed & natural fact, hierarchies within the nation could be depicted in familial terms to guarantee social ference as a category of nature. The metaphoric depiction of social hieratchy as ‘natural and familial —the “national family" the global “amily of nations," the colony a5 a “family of black children ruled over by a white father" — depended in this way fon the prior natualizing ofthe social subordination of women and children within the domestic sphere In modern Europe, chizenship is the legal representation of a person's relationship to the rights and resources of the nation state, Bur the putatively universalist concept of national citizenship becomes unstable when seen from the position of women. Alter the French Revolution, women were incorporated into European nation-states not disecdly as citizens but only indirectly, through men, as dependent members ‘of the family in private and public aw, The Code Napoléon was the firs modern statute to decree that the wife’ nationality should follow her husband's, an example ‘other European countries briskly followed. A woman's political relation to the nation, ‘was thus submerged as a social relation to a man through marrage. For women, Citizenship in the nation was mediated by the mariage relation within the family ‘This essay is directly concemed with the consequences for women of this uneven gendering of the national citizen, ‘The Gendering of Nation‘Time ‘A numberof eres have followed Tom Nairn in naming the nation “the modern Janus. For Naitn, the nation takes shape as a contradictory figure of time: one 92 Ane MeClintock face yazing back into the primosclal miss ofthe past, the ether into an infinite f- ture. Deniz Kandivoti expresses the temporal contradiction with clarity: nationalism. “presenis itself both as a madern project that mets and transforms traditional at ‘tachments in favour of new identities and as a reflection of authentic culeral values called from the depths of a presumed communal past." Homi K. Bhabha, following [Naien and Anderson, writes: "Nations, like narratives, ose their origins in the myths lof time and only fully realize their horizons in the mine's eye." Bhabha and Ander- ‘son borrow here on Walter Benjamin's crucial insight into the temporal paradox of ‘modernity. For Benjamin, a cental feature of nineteenth-century industrial capital inm was the “use of archaic images to identify what was historically new about the ‘nature’ of commodities "” According to Benjamin, the mapping of progress depends ‘on systematically inventing images of archaic time to identify wha is historically new aboot enlightened, national progress. Anderson can thus ask: “Supposing “antiquity” ‘vere, ata cetain historical juncture, the necessary consequence of novelty? ‘What i less offen noticed, however, i thatthe temporal anomaly within nation- lism — veering between nostalgia and the impatient, progressive sloughing off of the past—is typically resolved by figuring the contradiction in the representation of time as a natural division of gender, Women are represented as the atavstc and au- thentic body of national tradition (inex, backwanh-looking, and natural), embodying rationalism’s conservative principle of continuity. Men, by contrast, represent the progressive agent of ational modernity (forward-thrusting, potent, and historic), embodying nationalism's progressive, oF revolutionary, principle of discontinuity. ‘Nationalism’s anomalous felation to time is thus managed as @ natural relation t0 gender. Tn the nineteenth century, the social evolutionists secularized time and placed it at the disposal of the national, imperial project. The axis of time was projected onto the axie of space, a history heeame plohal. Now not only natural space but also historical time was collected, measured, and mapped onto a global science of the surface.” In the process, history, especially national and imperial history, took on. the character of a spectacle. ‘Secularzing time has threefold significance for nationalism. Fist, figured in the evolutionists global family tree, the world's discontinuous nations appear to be mar- shaled within a single, hierarchical European ur-narrative. Second, national history is {imaged as naturally teleological, an organic process of upward growth, with the Eu- ropean nation as the apogee of world progress. Third, inconvenient discontinuities are ranked and subordinated into 2 hierarchical structure of branching time — the progress of racially" clferent nations mapped against the tree's self-evident boughs, ‘with lesser nations destined, by nature, to perch on its lower branches. ‘National time is thus not only secularized hut also domesticated. Soci evolution- {sm and anthropology gave to national politics a concep« of natural time as familial In the image of the family wee, evolutionary progress was represented as a series Cf anatomically distinct family types, organized into a linear procession, from the “childhood” of “primitive” races tothe enlightened “adulthood” of Faropean imperial rationalism, Violent ational change took on the character of an evolving spectacle ‘under the organizing rubric of the famuly. The merging ofthe racial evolutionary tee land the gendered family into the family wee of man provided scientific racism with “No Longer in a Future Heaven” 93 4 simultaneously gendered and racial image through which it could popularize the ‘dea of linear national progress Britain's emerging national narrative gendeved time by figuring women (ike the colonized and the working class) as inherently atavistic — the conservative repos tory of the national archaic. Women were seen not as inhabiting history proper but as existing, like colonized peoples, in a permanently anterior time within the modem, nation, White, mille-class men, by contrast, were seen to embody the forward thnasting agency of national progress. Thus the figore ofthe national family of man reveals a persistent paradox. National progress (conventionally the invented domain ‘of male, public space) was figured as familial, while the family itself (conventionally the domain of private, female space) was figured as beyond history ‘One can safely say, at this poing, that there is no single narrative of the nation, Different groups (genders, classes, ethnicities, generations, and so on) do not expe- sence the myriad national formations in the same way. Nationalisms are invented, performed, and consumed in ways that do not follow a universal blueprint. At the very least, the breathtaking Eurocentism of Hobsbawis dismissal of Third Workl nationalisms warrants sustained criticism. In a gesture of sweeping condescension, Hobsbawm nominates Europe as nationalsm’s “original home,” while “all Ube ant Imperial movements of any significance” are unceremoniously dumped into three categories: mimicry of Europe, anti-Western xenophobia, and the “natural high spir sts of marta tbes."™ By way of contrat, it might be useful to curm at this point 10 Frantz Fanon's quite different analysis of the gendering ofthe national formation. Fanon and Gender Agency [As male theorists of nationalism go, Frantz Fanon is exemplary, not only for recog- nizing gender ax «formative dimension of rationalism Int alko for recognizing — tnd immediately rejecting — the Western metaphor ofthe nation as family, There ane close connections," he observes in Black Skin, White Masks, "between the sue ture ofthe fay and the sucture of the nation "Refusing, however, to collude with the notion ofthe familal metaphor 2s natural and normative, Fanon instead undes- stands it asa cultural projection Crbe characteristics ofthe family are projected oato the social envionment) that has very diferent consequences for falies placed aliscrepantly within the colonial hierarchy. “A normal Negro child, having grown up within normal family, will ecome abnosal on te slightest contact withthe white wodd.”” ‘The challenge of Fanon’ insight threefold. Fist, he ubrows radially into ques tion the naturalness of nationalism as a domestic genealogy. Second, he seads familial normaly as a product of social power — indeed, of socal violence, Third, Fanon is remarkable for recognizing, inthis early text, how matary violence and the authority of a centalized sate borrow on and enlarge the domestication of gen- dee power within the family: “Mitarization and the entaliztion of authority fo ‘country automatically entail a resurgence of the authority ofthe father" Perhaps one of Fanoa’s most provocative ideas is his challenge 1 any easy relation of identity berween the paychodynamics ofthe unconscious and the psycho- 94 Anne McClintock dynamics of political life. The audacity of his insight is that it allows one 10 ask ‘whether the psychodynamics of colonial power and of anticolonial subversion can be interpreted by deploying (without mediation) the same concepts and techniques used to interpret the psychodynamics of the unconscious. If dhe family is not “a ‘miniature of the nation,” then are metaphoric projections from family life (the Ta- canian “Law of the Father” say) adequate for an understanding of colonial or Aanticolonial power? Fanon himself scems to say no, Relations between the individual “unconscious and political life are, 1 argue, nether separable from each other nor re

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