Post-colonial perils: art and national impossibilities

Abstract

The paper reflects on the tension that the process of sensing a nation brings to the formation of a post-colony in Southeast Asia. The “aesthetic” in this context creates forms of sensibility of the “national,” rendering it present in the world and endowing it with certain identity-effects. On the other hand, it also posits an exceptional singularity, at once discriminating against subjectivities that resist to be contained within the national project and achieving the distinction of autonomy. This process foregrounds moments of finitude, improvisation, and intimacy, aspects of the aesthetic that are central to the crafting of the national and its art.