Figures of transversality: State power and prenatal screening in contemporary Vietnam
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Figures of transversality : State power and prenatal screening in contemporary Vietnam. / Gammeltoft, Tine.
In: American Ethnologist, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2008, p. 570-587.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Figures of transversality
T2 - State power and prenatal screening in contemporary Vietnam
AU - Gammeltoft, Tine
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - In this article, I explore how prenatal screening is imbricated within state agendas, aspirations, and imaginings in contemporary Vietnam. In an effort to develop new ethnographic tropes for understanding the formation called "the state," I argue for a phenomenological take that emphasizes its affective and embodied aspects. Seeing the anomalous fetus as a "figure of transversality," as a critical focus for powerful imaginings and desires, I show how state–society relations in Vietnam are suffused by visceral affectivity and moral engagement. In the realm of reproduction, intense sentiments of anxiety, dread, desire, ambition, and hope tie together the state and its citizens, animating individual aspirations as well as national population policies.
AB - In this article, I explore how prenatal screening is imbricated within state agendas, aspirations, and imaginings in contemporary Vietnam. In an effort to develop new ethnographic tropes for understanding the formation called "the state," I argue for a phenomenological take that emphasizes its affective and embodied aspects. Seeing the anomalous fetus as a "figure of transversality," as a critical focus for powerful imaginings and desires, I show how state–society relations in Vietnam are suffused by visceral affectivity and moral engagement. In the realm of reproduction, intense sentiments of anxiety, dread, desire, ambition, and hope tie together the state and its citizens, animating individual aspirations as well as national population policies.
M3 - Journal article
VL - 35
SP - 570
EP - 587
JO - American Ethnologist
JF - American Ethnologist
SN - 0094-0496
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 9353463