Interior Frontiers: Essays on the Entrails of Inequality

Ann Laura Stoler's book explores the shadows and shatterzones of democratic policies, revealing how imperial features are folded through (il)liberal orders. She exposes unexpected sites and scenes that register the lower frequencies of denigration, such as the warped criteria assigned to taste and who can have it. She also highlights those who reject these violences, who distil refusal in poetic rage, and who create and conjure landscapes beyond Israeli violences. These sites of contest may be the emergent political scenes of racial sovereignty's unmaking and where the weapons of that unmaking are readied and stored.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 16 August 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

In her book, Ann Laura Stoler delves into the intricate web of democratic policies, exploring how imperial characteristics intertwine with (il)liberal orders to exacerbate racial disparities in the borderlands of interior frontiers. These frontiers, often characterized by porous or fixed boundaries, create a fabricated divide between insiders and outsiders. For those on the wrong side of this imagined line, entry requirements can be enigmatic, operating in verbal and visual obscurity. Illegibilities are encoded within codes, perpetuating disparities across various sites. The sensibilities that fuel and sustain these inequalities are diverse, ranging from seemingly benign to profoundly toxic. Drawing upon Ralph Ellison's phrase, Stoler uncovers unexpected locations and scenes that capture the subtler forms of denigration. She exposes the distorted criteria assigned to taste and the exclusivity of its possession, as well as the seared lives shaped by longing, envy, and humiliation. By closely examining the soft violences of sentiments that ascribe, distribute, and assess human kinds, Stoler sheds light on the complex dynamics of power and resistance. However, her project extends beyond those who perpetuate these violences, focusing on those who distill refusal into poetic rage—a term coined by Stoler to describe the anti-colonial avant-garde. Through a series of multi-media archiving ventures among Palestinians, Stoler advocates for creating and conjuring landscapes that transcend Israeli violence, envisioning a future and present free from such oppression. With a keen eye and a nuanced approach, she guides the reader through the dark corridors where racial inequalities thrive, offering a (sub)metric of inequality as a fictive measure of human worth.

Weight: 462g
Dimension: 211 x 139 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190076382