The Transgressive practices of Revolutionary Subjectivity: The Hunger Strike in Occupied Palestine

Ashjan Ajour

doi:10.14324/111.2057-2212.068

Abstract

This paper engages theoretically with the transgressive practices of the Palestinian hunger strikers, whose subjectivity is shaped through a web of interrelationships with the colonial power and its repressive techniques within the Israeli prison system. In the context of occupied Palestine, I examine the political subjectivity of the Palestinian freedom fighters, as performed through the radical political actions of their hunger strikes. These actions aim at emancipating the captive body and destabilizing the colonial power, even though they entail painful existential experiences and a logic of self-sacrifice. I wish to explore the concept of ‘’transgression” and its link to subjectivity in order to illuminate the lived experience of the hunger strikers. The transformation process giving rise to a revolutionary subjectivity is not a mechanical process but a complex mode of transgressive subjectivation related to severe forms of dispossession. My aim is to theorize both the structure of subjectivation and dispossession. I will also attempt to show how revolutionary subjectivity relates to Foucault’s notion of aesthetic sensibility. To read or download this article, please follow this link: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1558837 DOI: 10.14324/111.2057-2212.068

Highlights

I wish to explore the concept of ‘’transgression” and its link to subjectivity in order to illuminate the lived experience of the hunger strikers
This paper is a part of a doctoral thesis which analyses the lived experience of former political prisoners in order to examine the kind of political subjectivity they perform in their hunger strikes; as radical political actions
I will explore the concept of ‘’transgression” and investigates how the transgressive subjectivation of the hunger strikers relates to the dispossession enacted by colonial power

Summary

Introduction

I wish to explore the concept of ‘’transgression” and its link to subjectivity in order to illuminate the lived experience of the hunger strikers. I will explore the concept of ‘’transgression” and investigates how the transgressive subjectivation of the hunger strikers relates to the dispossession enacted by colonial power. I will contextualize the concept of transgression in my case study within the lived experience of the hunger strikers in Israeli prisons.

Results

Conclusion