SENSA Lab, and Department of Film and Screen Media

Yazan Doughan (LSE)

Thursday 23 February 2023, 5.00–7.00 p.m.

Film & Screen Media Auditorium, Kane Building B10B, UCC Campus

https://www.ucc.ie/en/fmt/film/research/sensa/

Ethnographies of late-20th and 21st century political life are replete with descriptions of what might be called ‘suspicious socialities’–modes of engagement and interaction built on mistrust, or a sense that appearances hide more than what they reveal–which occasionally seek to penetrate the veneer of appearances to uncover the hidden operations of power, or the ‘really real.’ Today, a critical stance of generalized suspicion has become a normal mode of being, even a moral imperative, in political life, with the effect of blurring the boundaries between ‘critical’ and ‘conspiracy’ theories (Latour 2004). My aim in this talk is to think about the concept of critique through a semiotic analysis of the communicative practices of and on Jordan’s anti-corruption movement in a time of ‘total corruption’–a time when corruption is felt to have infected the moral substance of society, not just the deeds of particular individuals.