Ruined performativity,(post-) imperial illusions: Rum liturgies at the Panagia Paramythias/Vlach Saray church in Istanbul

Abstract

As the boundaries between nationalism and imperial revivalism blur in Turkey and beyond, the performative mobilization of imperial ruins in nationalized contexts calls for critical attention. I introduce the concept of ruined performativity to capture how performance transforms the debris of intersecting political formations—imperial, national, civic, and religious—into resources for resilience while simultaneously navigating the exclusionary logics that necessitate such creative reconstruction. Combining discourse analysis with ethnographic observation of Rum liturgies at the ruins of the Panagia Paramythias/Vlach Saray church in Istanbul, I examine how the Rum minority uses performance to navigate its fragmented historical landscapes by selectively mobilizing imperial and national pasts at sites of material ruination. Spanning the Ottoman Empire to Turkey, the Panagia Paramythias/Vlach Saray ruins show how minoritarian imaginaries both intersect with and challenge imperial and nationalist modes of belonging, unpacking the illusory aspects of revivalist imperialism and nationalism.