Abstract

While historical and anthropological critiques of secularism have illuminated its contradictory claims, they have been less attentive to secularism’s rhetorical force, i.e., its performative effect. Before theorizing the rhetoric of “Islamo-Gauchisme” and contemporary secularism more broadly, then, this article first traces this inattention to an influential line of argument grounded in anthropologist Talal Asad’s critiques of religion and secularism (1993, 2003, 2018), which opposes secularism’s (putatively) transparent and referential language and autonomous subject, derived from Protestantism, to the performative, pedagogical discourse and subject of authoritative traditions of pious discipline, medieval Christianity and contemporary Islam, in particular. Next, the article lays the ground for theorization by foregrounding the performative and citational, or “theatro-graphic” (Weber 2001), qualities of secular rhetoric in Walter Benjamin’s (2019) and Paul de Man’s (1983) treatments of Baroque and pre-romantic allegory. It closes by reading the performative force of accusation and allegory in the avowedly secular (laïc) rhetoric of contemporary French politics.

摘要

虽然对世俗主义的历史和人类学批评阐明了其矛盾的主张，但他们不太关注世俗主义的修辞力量，即其表演效果。那么，在更广泛地对“伊斯兰高奇主义”和当代世俗主义进行理论化之前，本文首先将这种忽视追溯到人类学家塔拉勒·阿萨德对宗教和世俗主义的批评（1993、2003、2018）中的一条有影响力的论点，该论点反对宗教和世俗主义。世俗主义（推定的）透明的、参考性的语言和自主的主体，源自新教，到虔诚纪律、中世纪基督教和当代伊斯兰教的权威传统的表演性、教学性话语和主体。下一个，本文通过突出沃尔特·本雅明（Walter Benjamin）（2019）和保罗·德曼（Paul de Man）（1983）对巴洛克和前浪漫主义寓言的处理中的世俗修辞的表演性和引用性或“戏剧性”（Weber 2001）品质，为理论化奠定了基础。本书最后解读了当代法国政治中公开的世俗（世俗）修辞中的指控和寓言的表演力量。