Week Five: Saba Mahmood

The Subject of Freedom

I was very glad to have read Chandra Mohanty’s piece before beginning Saba Mahmood’s, especially due to the passage when Mahmood discusses “liberal assumptions about human nature”. Mohanty’s explanation of liberal humanism was a useful tool, particularly regarding the assumptions that “human beings have an innate desire for freedom” and that “human agency primarily consists of acts that challenge social norms” which Mahmood discusses. These assumptions, particularly the latter, are further explored when Mahmood tackles Judith Butler and the concept of power and norms. According to Butler (and Foucault) power, while used to dominate specific individuals or entities, is not exclusively an agent of domination. Power is also inherent in forming the subjects who become part of the “operations of power”. This production of subjects and subsequently “norms” is socially perpetuated, but Butler argues that the very creation of subjects and norms can be used as an agent to destabilize the system. Mahmood however, provides an interesting argument by suggesting that Butler’s perception of agency is limited to acts that contest norms.

Mahmood criticizes the concept of agency earlier in the article too, when a woman’s agency is mentioned. More specifically, the problematic undertone of a woman’s agency, in the perception that it is only powerful if it is resistant to a male dominated system, particularly in country that is seen as politically stagnant or backwards.

Gender, Agency, and Embodiment

            In the second reading, Mahmood again encourages the reader to reflect on agency in an alternate or additional way. As opposed to thinking of agency as pushing back against subordination, Mahmood has the reader examine agency as a “modality of action”. An example of female mosque participants is given, and Mahmood dissects the complicated nature of performativity and gendered actions. Mahmood explains that when a woman is working toward piety, the traits she may learn (like shyness and modesty) and the way she participates in the mosque is not mean to destabilize the structure of the mosque like Judith Butler would suggest, but is to consolidate the mosque. A mosque participant would want to ensure that her exterior self and interior self are aligned, both for piety.

          These readings made me think of an article by José Esteban Muñoz called Disidentifications. In it, he argues that there are three main modes of identification to power. One can have identification, counteridentification, or disidentification. Disidentification can be viewed as how a minoritarian exists in a majoritarian world. Disidentifiying does not assimilate to nor strictly oppose dominant ideology. This concept of alternative relationships to power was something I thought of as I read the two chapters from Mahmood's book.
          Both of these chapters were an excellent example of why it is important to consider agency as a mode of action that can be varied and not limited to those being subjugated by men. It is easy to categorize agency as pushing back against a structure, or trying to destabilize a system. Mahmood provided thoughtful (and wordy!) arguments that push the reader to ask for a deeper understanding of power, agency, and gender. 

molly nevius