Asad and Benjamin: Chronopolitics of tragedy in the anthropology of secularism

Abstract

Divergent theories of tragedy in the anthropology of secularism have been articulated with reference to the work of Talal Asad, yet he himself disavows a tragic sensibility. In seeking to understand this disjuncture, I sketch out political and analytical consequences of invoking tragedy when approaching Muslims in Europe and colonial-era shifts in Islamic law. I then align Asad’s demurral of tragedy with Walter Benjamin’s differentiation between classical tragedy and baroque drama. Benjamin demonstrates how anthropology could register (without affirming) secularism’s promise of disenchantment. Rather than tragedy, whose catharsis remains available for conscription by secular power, Asad’s critical project is animated by a methodological antihistoricism.