Treason and Subjectivity

• Applicant: Dr. Stephan Gregory
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies ; German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391972070

When treason comes into the view of science, the usual point of interest is 'the logic of secrecy' that lies behind it. The project proposed here, however, focuses on the subjectivity effects and affective qualities of treason -- an aspect which provokes popular discussion, but is rarely considered theoretically.The project tries to trace the enmeshments of treason and subjectivity by means of a 'mimetological' analysis. Methodically, it adheres to a simple rule burrowed from actor-network theory: 'Follow the imitations'. The search area is defined by the term 'interzone'. The notion describes the region of the transition, in its specific temporality, spatiality and mediality, in which the 'becoming' of a treason takes place. This observational framework shall render visible the different mimetic operations which determine the event of betrayal. The analysis is not restricted to the mimetic modes of pictorial resemblance or structural homology. In fact, it is particularly interested in those aspects of treachery that take place along an axis of contact, touch or contiguity. With these forms of metamorphic activity which are difficult to grasp because they are not crystallized in images, a 'political real' comes into play, which is not covered by the more common analyzes of the 'political imaginary'.The microanalysis of situations of betrayal aims at a diagnosis of social bonding. In treachery, one can speak of a 'tearing of a bond' in several respects. Like no other human action, betrayal calls into question the bonds that bind subjects to other subjects, that bind them to themselves, or that bind them to a particular truth. Precisely because social bonds, ego-identity and truth are put to the test in such a crying way, the act of betrayal can testify about the constitution of these bonds.From this unfolding of the research question, the disposition of the project results. The first part is concerned with the dynamics of transition between different subject positions; a synchronous section through the 'classical modernism' of treason (c. 1936-1963) is intended to expose essential moments of 'becoming-traitor'. The second part deals with the question of the relation of the subject to itself; here, the investigation concentrates on the French 1940s' discourse on collaboration and on the discussion about traitors and snitches in the West German Left of the 1970s and 1980s. The third part will explore what the discourse of treason can tell about the 'economy of truth' of a time; here, the historical focus is on the discourses about the 'disappearance' (about 1968 to 1989) and about the 'return' (2001 to today) of treason.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants