Abu Ghraib and Beyond: Torture as an Extension of the Desiring Machine

Autori

  • Hania Nashef American University of Sharjah

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/2557

Parole chiave:

Abu Ghreib, Orient, Deviance, Torture, Desiring Machine, Colonialism

Abstract


In his discussion of Dante’s Inferno, Edward Said writes that “Maometto” or Mohammed occupies the eighth circle in the nine circles of Hell, belonging to “a rigid hierarchy of evils.”  According to Said, “Maometto” is “endlessly being cleft in two from his chin to his anus,” a punishment in Dante’s belief is well deserved because of Maometto’s sensuality and “pretensions to theological eminence.”  Such graphic description of torment evokes scenes of torture we have of late witnessed in Abu Ghreib and Guantanamo.  Prisoners, not only, were subjected to physical abuse but were also subjected to acts of sexual perversion as was revealed by the photos.  Furthermore, the latter showed those who partook in these actions seemed to be enjoying the power that the exercise of torture gave them.  Robert J.C. Young states that Colonialism “was not only a machine of war … but also a desiring machine.”  This poses the question as to whether torture does allow for the enactment of repressed desire by allowing it to surface by providing it with a venue in which it becomes acceptable.  Moreover, does Colonialism in its previous or in its current form, only sustain itself fundamentally through constant violence, of which perversion is a vital component as these practices are playing into the repertoire of the evil East, or is the perversion an extension of a suppressed Oedipus complex?  

Metriche

Caricamento metriche ...

Biografia autore

Hania Nashef, American University of Sharjah

Hania A.M. Nashef is an Assistant Professor of Mass Communication at the American University of Sharjah. Her publications include The Politics of Humiliation in the Novels of J.M. Coetzee,  ”Becomings in J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians & José Saramago's Blindness,” Comparative Literature Studies, “The blurring of boundaries: images of abjection as the terrorist and the reel Arab intersect,” Critical Studies on Terrorism, “ and "Baal and Thoth; unwelcome apparitions in J.M. Coetzee's The Master of Petersburg and Disgrace,” Ariel.

Dowloads

Pubblicato

2012-11-23

Come citare

Nashef, Hania. 2012. «Abu Ghraib and Beyond: Torture As an Extension of the Desiring Machine». Altre Modernità, n. 8 (novembre):79-93. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/2557.

Fascicolo

Sezione

Saggi Ensayos Essais Essays