Reviewed by:

• Refugeehood and the Postconflict Subject: Reconsidering Minor Losses by Olga Demetriou
• Elektra Kostopoulou (bio)

On 9 September 2020, the international press reported that, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, fires had destroyed one of the largest migrant/refugee camps in Europe, leaving nearly 13,000 people without shelter (BBC 2020; Smith 2020). The tragedy was followed by heated debates regarding displaced people, confirming yet again that arrival at an allegedly safe destination neither [End Page 241] translates automatically into security nor should be treated in isolation as a perpetual condition of exceptionality. To put it differently, the stories of non-citizens form an important aspect of the ideological, political, material, and legal construction of modern citizenship. This plausible though largely overlooked reality is central to Olga Demetriou’s brilliant new book, Refugeehood and the Postconflict Subject.

Throughout the book, Demetriou creates a picture. From the book’s central metaphor of “imbrications” (8–16) to the many interconnected stories that emerge through the tiles, gaps, and shadows of the overlapping arrangement, this is a particularly illuminating and intensely visual representation of displacement on the island of Cyprus. On an initial level, the book explores a specific geography through the materiality of actual space. It also suggests that displacement in general is not a straightforward synonym for objective state-lessness. Instead, argues Demetriou, it forms a “structural aspect of citizenship regimes” (3). Her analysis reveals Cyprus to be a unique and simultaneously typical reflection of postcolonial attitudes vis-à-vis displacement on a divided island shaped by prolonged conflict. Right from the outset, the book places special emphasis on the ways in which “losses,” which Demetriou divides into “major” and “minor,” are used to legitimize state sovereignty (22). To understand Demetriou’s argument, one needs to appreciate that one of Cyprus’s main particularities is the distinction between Cypriot refugees and everybody else. The former constitute “refugees in their own country” (3); the latter are those who may enjoy some rights under international law but remain excluded from any ideological or legal version of membership in a locality. Clearly, neither group is homogenous, since factors like gender, socioeconomic background, and specific origin shape manifold internal hierarchies. From the vantage point of the state, however, there remains an important distinction between the two groups, one which defines Cypriot nationalism in a very tangible way.

Like Demetriou’s earlier work, this book renders a twofold service of significant importance. In fact, Demetriou’s discussion of refugeehood here is even more intriguing when approached in the light of her previous engagement with “capricious borders” (see Kostopoulou 2015). While it relies on the author’s profound empirical understanding of the locality under scrutiny, the book also engages rigorously, from a theoretical perspective, with broader research on global displacement and bio-power. Hence, it contributes novel insights that are far from limited to one particular island. Recognizing the importance of the existing literature on displacement, this book nevertheless reminds the reader that, like agency, Otherness and entrapment become manifest in surprising ways. The author’s use of the term imbrications speaks precisely to [End Page 242] her search for broader relevance: Demetriou’s analysis reveals the unexpected to be not an anomaly but a structural part of displacement. Besides, this is a book about actual neighborhoods, actual borders, and hence actual space. It is thus very fitting that it conveys theoretical insights via idioms borrowed from actual structures, through whose cracks one can fall or rise. That the book’s chapters are organized like the parts of a building is an elegant reflection of its main premise.

In Chapter 2, Demetriou reminds readers that the Cypriot state’s investment in refugeehood as a foundational aspect of citizenship relies on extremely selective understandings of international law and local history. For instance, the state condemns violence by framing Turkey as the sole aggressor and/or, in a broader sense, by making reference to colonialism. Both perspectives free Greek Cypriots from any actual responsibility for the perpetuation of conflict. In the same vein...

审核人：

• 难民与冲突后主体：重新考虑奥尔加·德米特里（Olga Demetriou）造成的轻微损失
• Elektra Kostopoulou（生物）

2020年9月9日，国际媒体报道说，在全球COVID-19大流行中，大火烧毁了欧洲最大的移民/难民营之一，使近13,000人无住所（BBC 2020； Smith 2020）。悲剧发生后，关于流离失所者的激烈辩论再次确认，到达所谓安全地点的既不是[End Page 241]也不能自动转化为安全，也不应孤立地视为永久的例外情况。换句话说，非公民的故事构成了现代公民意识形态，政治，物质和法律建设的重要方面。这个似乎合理但虽然被忽略的现实是奥尔加·德米特里（Olga Demetriou）出色的新书的核心，难民与冲突后主体。

在整本书中，Demetriou都会创建图片。从书中的“禁忌症”的隐喻（8–16）到通过重叠的瓷砖，缝隙和阴影出现的许多相互关联的故事，这是塞浦路斯岛上流离失所者的一种特别具有启发性和强烈视觉化的表现。在最初的水平上，这本书通过实际空间的实质性探索了特定的地理环境。这也表明，一般而言，位移并不是客观无状态的直接代名词。相反，德米特里认为，它形成了“公民权制度的结构方面”（3）。她的分析表明，塞浦路斯是后殖民态度与长期冲突形成的分裂岛屿上相对于流离失所的独特且同时典型的反映。从一开始 该书特别强调了将德米特里分为“主要”和“次要”的“损失”用于使国家主权合法化的方式（22）。要理解德米特里的论点，需要认识到塞浦路斯的主要特点之一是塞浦路斯难民与其他所有人之间的区别。前者构成“本国难民”（3）；后者是根据国际法享有某些权利，但不受当地任何意识形态或法律形式的会员资格约束的人。显然，这两个群体都不是同质的，因为诸如性别，社会经济背景和特定出身等因素影响着内部等级制度。但是，从国家的有利位置来看，两组之间仍然存在重要的区别，

就像德米特里（Demetriou）的早期作品一样，这本书提供了双重服务，具有重要意义。事实上，根据她以前与“反复无常的边界”接触时，德米特里在这里对难民身份的讨论更加有趣。（参见科斯托普卢2015）。尽管本书依靠作者对受审查地方的深刻经验性理解，但从理论的角度出发，本书也对全球流离失所和生物权力进行了更为广泛的研究。因此，它提供了新颖的见解，而这些见解远非局限于一个特定的岛屿。认识到现有的关于位移的文献的重要性，这本书仍然提醒读者，像代理人一样，其他和陷害以令人惊讶的方式显现出来。作者对“激振”一词的使用恰恰说明了[结束第242页]她寻求更广泛的相关性：德米特里（Demetriou）的分析表明，出乎意料的不是异常，而是位移的结构部分。此外，这是一本有关实际邻里，实际边界以及实际空间的书。因此，它是通过从实际结构中借用的习语来传达理论见解的，这是非常合适的，通过它的裂缝可以跌落或上升。本书的章节像建筑物的各个部分一样井井有条，很好地反映了其主要前提。

在第2章中，德米特里（Demetriou）提醒读者，塞浦路斯国家对难民地位的投资是公民身份的基础，这取决于对国际法和当地历史的高度选择性理解。例如，国家谴责暴力，将土耳其定为唯一的侵略者，并且/或者从更广泛的意义上讲，它提到殖民主义。两种观点都使希族塞人免于承担使冲突永存的任何实际责任。同样的道理