Troubles with Intimacy

Intimacy is a ‘theme’ that has flourished in studies of empire over the last decade, garnering attention as it has never done before.  Despite the profusion of works that address the subjects that ostensibly fall within its domain, it is rarely addressed as a political concept that does particular kinds of work, in particular its use as an analytic productively opening some sites of inquiry while foreclosing others. In this intervention, I look to examine what purchase it provides in our treatment of imperial governance and some of the counter-intuitive sites we might still think to explore.