Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Government of Violence

The Place of Violence in Government

Violence and the Fashioning of Political Subjectivity

Social Memories of Violence and Regimes of Subjectivity

A Note on Methods and Sources

Structure of the Book

1Violence as a Modality of Government in Syria

State of Exception, Sacralisation of Politics and the Civil War Regime

The Prison Camp as an Apparatus of Government

The Politics of the Massacre in the Civil War Regime

Conclusion

2Authoritarian Government, the Shadow State and Political Subjectivities

Authoritarian Governmentality

Political Subjectivities and Everyday Discursive Civilities

A Shadow State: The Political Economy of Subjectivation

The Political Economy and Identitarian Dimensions of Clientelised Subjects

From Homogenised Subjects to Exposed Subjects

Conclusion

3Memories of Life under Dictatorship: The Everyday of Ba‘thist Syria

Everyday Life under Dictatorship

Retrieving the Self in Narratives of the National

Conclusion

4Memories of Violence: Hama 1982

The Hama Events in Fragments

Remembering Hama: Managing and Inhabiting the Past

Multiple Syrian Pasts in the Work of Memory

Conclusion

5The Performativity of Violence and ‘Emotionalities of Rule’ in the Syrian Uprising

Horror in Regime–Citizen Relations: The Murder and Resurrection of Zaynab al-Hosni

The Politics of Massacre: Performative Violence

Conclusion

Conclusion: The Rule of Violence – Formations of Civil War

Sectarianisation of Institutions of Violence and of Space

Political Economy of Subjectivation and Identitarian Politics

Violence, Subjectivation and Affective Government

Postscript

References

Index