| ID | 157592 |
| Title Proper | (Re-)imagining the ‘self’ of ontological security |
| Other Title Information | the case of Brazil’s ambivalent postcolonial subjectivity |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Vieira, Marco A |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In this article, I critically engage with and develop an alternative approach to ontological security informed by Jacques Lacan’s theory of the subject. I argue that ontological security relates to a lack; that is, the always frustrated desire to provide meaningful discursive interpretations to one’s self. This lack is generative of anxiety which functions as the subject’s affective and necessary drive to a continuous, albeit elusive, pursuit of self-coherence. I theorise subjectivity in Lacanian terms as fantasised discursive articulations of the Self in relation to an idealised mirror-image other. The focus on postcolonial states’ subjectivity allows for the examination of the anxiety-driven lack generated by the ever-present desire to emulate but also resist the Western other. I propose, therefore, to explore the theoretical assertion that postcolonial ontological security refers to the institutionalisation and discursive articulation of enduring and anxiety-driven affective traces related to these states’ colonial pasts that are still active and influence current foreign policy practices. I illustrate the force of this interpretation of ontological security by focusing on Brazil as an example of a postcolonial state coping with the lack caused by its ambivalent/hybrid self-identity. |
| `In' analytical Note | Millennium: Journal of International Studies Vol. 46, No.2; Jan 2018: p.142–164 |
| Journal Source | Millennium: Journal of International Studies 2018-01 46, 2 |
| Key Words | Ontological Security ; Postcolonial Subjectivity ; Brazilsecurite ; Ontologique ; Subjectivite ; Postcoloniale ; Bresilseguridad Ontologica ; Subjetividad Poscolonial ; Brasil |