Search results for "Agamben"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Precarious Sovereignty in a Post-Liberal Europe : the Covid-19 Emergency in Estonia and Finland
2020
The paper addresses a puzzle resulting from the current global state of alert: the coronavirus pandemic brought us back to the world of the allegedly sovereign nation states with borders and national governments in charge, yet in fact, this retrieved sovereignty looks very vulnerable and precarious. We explain this controversy through a triad of concepts—sovereignty, governmentality, and post-liberalism—that we apply to an analysis of a corona-imposed state of emergency in Estonia and Finland. Based on comparative case study research, we posit that sovereignty is precarious in post-liberalism due to its large dependence on the technologies of responsibilization and agency. From a biopolitic…
Was Thomas Hobbes the first biopolitical thinker?
2023
Thomas Hobbes's name often comes up as scholars debate the history of biopower, which regulates the biological life of individual bodies and entire populations. This article examines whether and to what extent Hobbes may be regarded as the first biopolitical philosopher. I investigate this question by performing a close reading of Hobbes's political texts and by comparing them to some of the most influential theories on biopolitics proposed by Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and others. Hobbes is indeed the first great thinker to assert the supreme political importance of safeguarding life. Furthermore, this prominence of non-contemplative life is not limited to mere su…
Metamorphoses of Shamed Bodies : Sexual Violence in Euripides’s Helen
2021
In this paper I explore the connections between shame and embodiment in Euripides’s play Helen. The paper focuses on the play’s underlying theme of sexual violence and rape, and on the descriptions of metamorphoses that the mythological female victims often undergo in the face of rape. In my analysis on shame and embodiment I apply two insights from Giorgio Agamben’s analysis of the phenomenon of victim shame in The Remnants of Auschwitz. These are, first, the definition according to which shame is “to be consigned to what cannot be assumed”—that is, to be consigned to one’s self, being and physical body—and second, the claim that in shame one is affected by one’s own (bodily) passivity. Bu…
SARS and human rights in a postmodern context : a case study of Toronto
2008
This pro gradu-thesis studies the conflict between human rights and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The thesis focuses on the events that took place in Toronto between February and June 2003. The theoretical focus is placed within postmodern tradition and the main contributors for the theoretical approach in this work are Michel Foucault and Georgio Agamben. Especially the concept of biopolitics and politics of the state of exception are closely analysed. The key aspect of this thesis is in the temporality of human rights and the events that lead to revoking those rights. A great emphasis is placed on describing the interdependence between human rights and citizenship. In addition…
(Se fosse possibile o necessaria una) Postfazione
2019
Postfazione
The limits of subtractive politics: Agamben and Rousseau’s inheritance
2020
The article critically engages with Giorgio Agamben’s reading of Rousseau in order to explore the affinities between the two authors’ subtractive approach to political subjectivation. In The Kingdom and the Glory. Agamben argues that Rousseau’s Social Contract reproduces, in a secularized manner, the providential paradigm of government, whose origins Agamben finds in early Christianity. This paradigm establishes a fictitious articulation between transcendent sovereignty and immanent government, presenting particular acts of government as emanating from general divine laws. We shall demonstrate that Rousseau was neither unaware of the problematic character of this paradigm nor did he venture…
La imposible voz : memoria y testimonio de los campos de concentración en Chile: la posición del testigo
2005
El libro se divide en tres partes. En la primera, se reflexiona de forma filosófica y teórica sobre la posibilidad de representar de forma efectiva la experiencia de los campos de concentración, y se repasar las principales teorías y los principales debates en torno al problema de la representabilidad de la experiencias de violencia política. Se presta especial atención al concepto de biopolítica de Foucault y a las propuestas de Agamben y Wieviorka en torno a la figura del superviviente y el testimonio. En la segunda parte se analizan las políticas de memoria y representación de los campos campos de concentración (y de la violencia política en general), poniendo especial énfasis en el modo…
"Homo Sacer" figūra Nadīnes Gordimeras romānā "Pikaps" un Kiranas Desaji romānā "Mantotā nolemtība"
2020
Dotais maģistra darbs atspoguļo analītisku imigranta tēla lasījumu, kā Džordžo Agambena koncepcijas "homo sacer" iemiesojumu, mūsdienu postkoloniālajā literatūrā. Šajā darbā tika analizēti divi romāni: Nadīnes Gordimeras “Pikaps” (2001) un Kiranas Desaji “Mantotā nolemtība” (2007). Darbā tika pielietota Džordžo Agambena (1998) politiskā teorija. Pētījums tika veikts ar mērķi interpretēt "homo sacer" figūras attēlojumu izvēlētajos romānos, izmantojot salīdzinošo literāro pieeju. Romānu interpretatīvo lasījumu manāmi pastiprināja tādi postkoloniālo literāro studiju metožu veidi kā starpdisciplinaritāte un kontekstualitāte. Pētnieciskā darba rezultāti attēlo imigrantu tēlus, kas tiek reducēti …
Riflessioni critiche sulla potenza destituente nel pensiero di Giorgio Agamben
Il presente lavoro di ricerca intende offrire una rilettura del pensiero di Giorgio Agamben alla luce della pubblicazione di L’uso dei corpi, volume con cui si conclude il ventennale progetto “Homo sacer”. In particolare, si discuteranno alcune nozioni fondamentali della filosofia agambeniana – nuda vita, stato di eccezione, inoperosità, forma-di-vita – a partire dalla formulazione conclusiva, ma non definitiva, che il filosofo propone nel libro in questione, per poi focalizzare l’attenzione sulla categoria nella quale si condensa l’intero percorso filosofico di Agamben: la “potenza destituente”. Quest’ultima viene definita come una potenza in grado di disattivare e rendere inoperosa la mac…
A Farewell to Homo Sacer? Sovereign Power and Bare Life in Agamben’s Coronavirus Commentary
2021
AbstractThe article addresses Giorgio Agamben’s critical commentary on the global governance of the Covid-19 pandemic as a paradigm of his political thought. While Agamben’s comments have been criticized as exaggerated and conspiratorial, they arise from the conceptual constellation that he has developed starting from the first volume of his Homo Sacer series. At the centre of this constellation is the relation between the concepts of sovereign power and bare life, whose articulation in the figure of homo sacer Agamben traces from the Antiquity to the present. We shall demonstrate that any such articulation is impossible due to the belonging of these concepts to different planes, respective…