Theology of the “Absent King” and the Possibility of Rabindranath Tagore’s Political Thought
Contrary to his usual depiction as a modern secular thinker, heteronomous imaginaries of sacrality and kingship are pervasive in Rabindranath Tagore’s plays. A return to these referents, as I show in this paper, releases Tagore’s thought-world from the stranglehold of derivative categories and allow...
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| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2022
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| Dans: |
Political theology
Année: 2022, Volume: 23, Numéro: 1/2, Pages: 44-58 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Tagore, Rabindranath 1861-1941
/ Hindouisme
/ Roi
/ Absence
/ Souveraineté
/ Liberté
/ Théologie
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociologie des religions BK Hindouisme FA Théologie KBM Asie TJ Époque moderne TK Époque contemporaine |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Theology
B Sovereignty B Esotericism B Tagore B Aesthetics B Politics B Freedom |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Résumé: | Contrary to his usual depiction as a modern secular thinker, heteronomous imaginaries of sacrality and kingship are pervasive in Rabindranath Tagore’s plays. A return to these referents, as I show in this paper, releases Tagore’s thought-world from the stranglehold of derivative categories and allows for his reconstruction as a political thinker. Eschewing the nationalist ideal of valiant and noble rulers shored up from histories and myths as legitimate alternatives to the colonial regime, Tagore aesthetically employed the imaginary of an “absent king” sourced from the Upanishads. Avoiding the tropes of spectrality of a dead king or an exceptional interregnal anarchic moment, emptiness was inscribed in the very heart of the monarchical model, thereby transfiguring it into a radical instituting imaginary of the social. This curiously brought together the apparently antithetical categories of sovereignty and freedom through an insistence on creative will and action. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2021.2017537 |