Survival of a Perverse Nation

In Survival of a Perverse Nation, Tamar R. Shirinian traces two widespread rhetorics of perversionsexual and moralin postsocialist Armenia, showing how they are tied to anxieties about the nations 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 oligarchs moral deviations from the caring and paternalistic expectations associated with national leadership also endanger Armenias survival. Shirinian shows how both figures threaten the nations 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 non-survival 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.