Honor and Political Imagination

Honor is often considered to be obsolete--tethered to a distant past of jousting knights and profound inequality. Yet the idea of honor remains a fixture in both political discourse and popular culture, generating an almost mythic source of meaning for those who draw inspiration from it for heroic (and often reckless) acts. Honor can inspire one to act with courage and conviction, but at the same time, it is profoundly destructive and anesthetizes one to the terrible consequences of its pursuit. What accounts for the enduring appeal of honor today?

In Honor and Political Imagination, Smita A. Rahman reckons with the power of honor in contemporary political and popular culture and the desire for heroism that accompanies it, while still being attentive to the dangers that such a desire brings. Rahman argues that while there may be a place for honor in the political imagination, it remains a contested and complicated one. Throughout the book, Rahman includes close readings of several visual and literary texts in popular culture--including Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America, among others--and puts them in conversation with a range of texts on honor in political theory, including Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hegel, Nietzsche, Appiah, and more. Drawing on the way honor is used in political and popular culture, Honor and Political Imagination shows not only its follies, but also its appeal and ability to inspire heroic political action that embraces life and seeks to overcome resentment.

Smita A. Rahman is the Johnson Family University Professor of Political Science at DePauw University where she teaches courses in modern, contemporary, and Islamic political thought. Her research interests are in contemporary and comparative political theory, and in politics and popular culture. In particular, she is interested in exploring how foundational concepts in political theory rupture and become contested in a globalized world of difference. She is the author of Time, Memory, and the Politics of Contingency (Routledge, 2014), and co-editor and co-author of Globalizing Political Theory (Routledge, 2022). Her articles and reviews have appeared in Contemporary Political Theory, Theory and Event, and other leading journals.