Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis, and IslamIn Arguing Sainthood, Katherine Pratt Ewing examines Sufi religious meanings and practices in Pakistan and their relation to the Westernizing influences of modernity and the shaping of the postcolonial self. Using both anthropological fieldwork and psychoanalytic theory to critically reinterpret theories of subjectivity, Ewing examines the production of identity in the context of a complex social field of conflicting ideologies and interests. Ewing critiques Eurocentric cultural theorists and Orientalist discourse while also taking issue with expatriate postcolonial thinkers Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak. She challenges the notion of a monolithic Islamic modernity in order to explore the lived realities of individuals, particularly those of Pakistani saints and their followers. By examining the continuities between current Sufi practices and earlier popular practices in the Muslim world, Ewing identifies in the Sufi tradition a reflexive, critical consciousness that has usually been associated with the modern subject. Drawing on her training in clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis as well as her anthropological fieldwork in Lahore, Pakistan, Ewing argues for the value of Lacan in anthropology as she provides the basis for retheorizing postcolonial studies. |
Contents
The TraditionModernity Dichotomy as a Hegemonic Discourse | 39 |
Illustrations | 51 |
The Pir the State and the Modern Subject | 65 |
Copyright | |
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abject activities Ahmed Aisha al-Ghazzālī antinomian articulated ascetic asked associated Auqaf Department Ayub Khan black magic British centuries colonial consciousness constituted context conversation created criminal cultural Data Ganj Bakhsh Data Sahib described desire developed disciple domination dream experience fantasy faqir father focus focused followers gaze graveyard hegemony Hindu identity ideology Ilmaz India individual Iqbal jādū jinn khalifa Lacan Lahore living mahfil malangs manifested Mian Sher Muhammad modern mu'akkals mu’akkals Mumtaz murid murshid Muslim narrative neighborhood neighbors nūri ilm orientation Pakistan person pīr political postcolonial prayer present Punjab qalandar Quran reformist relationship religious resistance ritual sadaqa sajjāda nishīn Shāh shaped shari'at shift shrine signifier social order specific spiritual stance story structure subject position Sufi discourse Sufi order Sufi practice Sufi Sahib Sufi saints Sufism Symbolic Order ta'wiz talking taunā theory tion told tradition wandering Western woman Yasmin Zahida