Interdisciplinary theorization of subjugated identities under demystified despotisms

Abstract

“Interdisciplinary Theorization of Subjugated Identities under Demystified Despotisms” investigates subjugation and the formation of subject identities under various forms of despotism over more than a century. By classifying the regimes of Manuel Estrada Cabrera from Guatemala, Mao Zedong from China, and Isaias Afwerki from Eritrea as premodern authoritarian, totalitarian, and modern authoritarian states respectively, this study traces the pattern of volatile subjugations to comprehend the formation of identities in oppressive states through an interdisciplinary approach between political science and literary studies which enables a broad yet in-depth analysis of the tactics used to condition man into the binaries of passive and active subjects. This is executed through a juxtaposition of theoretical foundations by Hannah Arendt, Louis Althusser, and Michel Foucault with the literary texts of Miguel Ángel Asturias, Ha Jin, Hannah Pool, and Michela Wrong to conduct a comprehensive study that examines socio-political constructs, spatial distribution of biopower through disciplinary and non-disciplinary powers, use of pseudo-democratic institutions, representation of the masses, and processes of indoctrination. Consequently, the complexities of binary classification of identities are highlighted due to the emergence of an intermediary position that deprives subjects of their autonomy during extreme subjugation which is directly proportional to the ascendence of ideological control, thus exemplifying the necessity of the demystification of despotisms through literature produced in exile that offers multiple perspectives of subject identities under oppression but remains stifled itself by censorship in their native homelands.