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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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Lade...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2022
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| In: |
Political theology
Jahr: 2022, Band: 23, Heft: 1/2, Seiten: 44-58 |
| normierte Schlagwort(-folgen): | B
Tagore, Rabindranath 1861-1941
/ Hinduismus
/ König
/ Abwesenheit
/ Souveränität
/ Freiheit
/ Theologie
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Religionssoziologie; Religionspolitik BK Hinduismus, Jainismus, Sikhismus FA Theologie KBM Asien TJ Neuzeit TK Neueste Zeit |
| weitere Schlagwörter: | B
Theology
B Sovereignty B Esotericism B Tagore B Aesthetics B Politics B Freedom |
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Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Zusammenfassung: | 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 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2021.2017537 |