This book offers a materialist critique of mainstream human rights discourse in the period following 9/11, examining literary works, critical histories, international declarations, government statutes, NGO manifestos, and a documentary film. The author points out some of the contradictions that emerge in contemporary rights language when material relations are not sufficiently perceived or acknowledged, and he directs attention to the role of some rights talk in maintaining and managing the accelerated global project of capital accumulation. Even as rights discourse points to injustices-for example, injustices related to labor, gender, the citizen's relationship to the state, or the movement of refugees-it can simultaneously maintain systems of oppression. By constructing subjects who are aligned to the interests of capital, by emphasizing individual "empowerment," and/or by containing social disenchantment, it reinforces the process of wealth accumulation, supports neoliberal ideologies, and diminishes the possibility of real transformation through collective struggle.
Kanishka Chowdhury is Professor of English and Director of the Program in American Culture and Difference at the University of St. Thomas, MN, USA. His first book, The New India: Citizenship, Subjectivity, and Economic Liberalization, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011.
Autorentext
Kanishka Chowdhury is Professor of English and Director of the Program in American Culture and Difference at the University of St. Thomas, MN, USA. His first book, The New India: Citizenship, Subjectivity, and Economic Liberalization, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011.
Inhalt
1. Introduction: Reading Rights Discourse in a Transnational Economy
Human Rights Discourse in Our Time
Constructing Human Rights Discourse
Human Rights Discourse and Wealth Accumulation
Overview of the Argument
2. Historicizing Rights Discourse Post-9/11
Introduction
Decolonization and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Fetishizing the Politics of Development in the Declarations of the 1990s
The Post-9/11 Landscape of Rights: A Critical Consideration
Neoliberalism and Rights Discourse
3. Workers' Rights, Exploitation, and the Transactional Moment
Introduction
Oppression and Exploitation: Some Differences
Marx's Analysis of the Injustice of Wage Labor
Unsettling the Morality of Rights and Regulations
Conclusion
4. Gender Rights and the Politics of Empowerment
Introduction
Empowerment and Neoliberalism
NGOs and the Construction of Civil Society
Microcredit: Empowerment and Debt
Nirantar, Gender Rights, and the Challenges of Transformative Work
Conclusion
5. Tomorrow There Will Be More of Us: Rights Discourse, The State, and Toxic Capitalism in Indra Sinha's Animal's People
Introduction
The State and the Struggle for Rights
Contextualizing Animal's People in Neoliberal Times
The Bhopal Disaster and its Aftermath
Literature and the Language of Human Rights
Hope is Not a Fiction: Interrogating Rights Discourse in Indra Sinha's Animal's People
Conclusion
6. Refugees' Rights: Capital, Óscar Martínez's The Beast, Gianfranco Rosi's Fuocoammare, and the Problem of the Surplus Population
Introduction
Seeking Refuge in a Global Context
Óscar Martínez's The Beast: Inciting Rage, Generating Respect
Beyond the Reach of Political Discourse: Gianfranco Rosi's Fuocoammare
The Problem of the Surplus Population
Designating Crisis, Fixing Borders
Conclusion
Chapter 7/Conclusion
