In Survival of a Perverse Nation, Tamar R. Shirinian traces two widespread rhetorics of perversion--sexual and moral--in postsocialist Armenia, showing how they are tied to...

In Survival of a Perverse Nation, Tamar R. Shirinian traces two widespread rhetorics of perversion--sexual and moral--in postsocialist Armenia, showing how they are tied to anxieties about the nation's survival. In her fieldwork with Armenians, Shirinian found that right-wing nationalists' focus on sexual perversion centers the figure of the homosexual, while questions of moral perversion surround oligarchs and other members of the political-economic elite. While the homosexual is seen as non- or improperly reproductive, the oligarch's moral deviations from the caring and paternalistic expectations associated with national leadership also endanger Armenia's survival. Shirinian shows how both figures threaten the nation's proper social reproduction, a source of great anxiety for a nation whose primary point of identity is surviving genocide. In the existential threat posed by these forms of perversion Shirinian finds paths where nonsurvival might mean the creation of futures that are queerer and more just. Detailing how the language of perversion offers trenchant critiques of capitalism as a perversion of life, Shirinian presents a new queer theory of political economy.

Author: Tamar R. Shirinian
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 11/15/2024
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.68d
ISBN: 9781478031116


Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2025

About the Author
Tamar R. Shirinian is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee.