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God-Emperor Trump: Masculinity, Suffering, and Sovereignty

Owings, Thomas Henry
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1591528636574634

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, Political Science (Arts and Sciences).
The following reflects on the 2016 election victory of Donald Trump. Most mainstream media accounts and a number of qualitative, Americanist studies propose a working-class “resentment” narrative to explain Trump’s popularity. In contrast, I suggest that political theology and understanding western notions of “sovereignty” are more important for making sense of Trump’s popularity. In what follows, I first provide a theoretical critique of genealogies of sovereignty in order to claim that identifying and intervening in situations of suffering are acts endemic to western sovereignty. My theoretical account expands notions of political theology to encompass the affective and the corporeal in order to claim that masculinity and sovereignty are co-constitutive forces in western cultural history. Have illustrated this claim in our canonical sources of political theory, I then return to the theological context of political `theology’ in order to locate the importance of suffering. Generally speaking, identifying situations of suffering, intervening within these situations, and causing situations of suffering are all sovereign acts. The popularity of Donald Trump and the unwavering support of his base comes not from a place of political ignorance or a need to irrationally resent others, but from the embodied notions of western politics that conceives of political order anchored on a masculine, sovereign individual who bears and distributes suffering
Julie White, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Judith Grant, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Jonathan Agensky, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Andrew Ross, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
193 p.
American Studies; Ancient Civilizations; Biblical Studies; Classical Studies; European Studies; Gender Studies; Philosophy; Political Science; Religion; Religious History; Theology
Trump; Suffering; Cruelty; Sovereignty; Political Theology; Agamben, Giorgio; Schmitt, Carl; Cavarero, Adriana; Continental Philosophy; Critical Theory; Political Theory; Masculinity; Gender; Derrida, Jacuqes; Heidegger; Political Science; Religion

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Owings, T. H. (2020). God-Emperor Trump: Masculinity, Suffering, and Sovereignty [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1591528636574634

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Owings, Thomas. God-Emperor Trump: Masculinity, Suffering, and Sovereignty. 2020. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1591528636574634.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Owings, Thomas. "God-Emperor Trump: Masculinity, Suffering, and Sovereignty." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1591528636574634

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1591528636574634
239
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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.