Performing National Emotions

Griese, Hannah (Januar 2025): Performing National Emotions. Aesthetic Dimensions of the “Torch Lighting Ceremony” for Israel’s 70th Independence Day. In: Implicit Religion, Bd. 26, Nr. 1: S. 245-264

Abstract

Political ceremonies are particularly suitable for examining the relationship between aesthetics, power, and religion. This article discusses the roles of religion and power in multimedia events that prominently involve sensual perception and emotions through the lens of the “Torch Lighting Ceremony” for the State of Israel’s 70th Independence Day in 2018. By use of a theoretical approach combining concepts of ritual, the body and materiality, the article aims to explore the dynamics of power in interaction with religious and aesthetical dimensions. It argues that both the emotionality of the event and references to religion within it decisively contribute to the legitimation of the performed narratives concerning Israeli national identity. With this approach, the contribution presents a study of religion and politics in the contemporary world that goes beyond the dichotomic accounts influenced by secularizing narratives and rather stresses the entanglement of both spheres.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Keywords: Ceremonies; politics; ritual; Power; aesthetics; media; Israel; Independence Day; religion; national identity
• Fakultät: Evangelische Theologie > Abteilung für Religionswissenschaft und Religionsgeschichte ; Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde > Naher und Mittlerer Osten
• Fakultätsübergreifende Einrichtungen: Interfakultärer Studiengang Religionswissenschaft
• Themengebiete: 200 Religion > 290 Andere Religionen
• Sprache: Englisch