Corporealising Cosmopolitanism: The “Right” of Desire

Abstract

This chapter examines the premises of “critical cosmopolitanism” and the relationships between contemporary cosmopolitan discourse and the body. It begins with Kant—inspired, liberal cosmopolitan narratives, which are, by and large, inscribed within the Cartesian binary of mind and body, extending into binarisations and elisions within gender, sexuality as well as race. In response to such narratives, the chapter examines some contemporary articulations of liberal cosmopolitanism, as well as postcolonial, radical cosmopolitanisms, which challenge the liberal framework. Drawing on the critique of scholars like Judith Butler (2002, 2004) and Walter Mignolo (2000), it explores the ways in which liberal cosmopolitan discourses have marginalised the body as a site of legitimacy and experience. Arguing against the Cartesian divide, it focuses on the constructions of queerness in India as an example of the ways in which embodied solidarities can both challenge and contribute to existing discourses of cosmopolitan belonging.

This essay is an early articulation of some preliminary ideas and thoughts, and was formulated in the year 2010. These ideas have since developed, and transformed significantly. Parts of this essay have been incorporated into the third chapter of my forthcoming book Towards Corporeal Cosmopolitanism: Performing Decolonial Solidarities (Raghavan 2017).