What Happens in Vegas: Hunter S. Thompson's Political Philosophy

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-170
Author(s):  
JASON VREDENBURG
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Hardt And Negri ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Antonio Negri ◽  
The Relationship

In the forty years since its publication, Hunter S. Thompson's most famous work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has received relatively little attention from scholars, in spite of its continuing popularity and acknowledged influence. Because the narrative is so thoroughly rooted in what Thompson called “this foul year of Our Lord, 1971,” the novel is generally approached (when it is discussed at all) as a historical artifact, a gonzo first draft of history, with its fortunes rising and falling with the counterculture of the 1960s. This article argues that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, far from being merely an epitaph for the 1960s, actually anticipates the more recent work of political theorists Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri. Thompson's work, like Agamben's, concerns the emergence of the state of exception and the homo sacer as new paradigms for the relationship between citizen and state; and, like Hardt and Negri, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas attempts to formulate a response to the emergence of global empire.

scholarly journals NALAR POLITIK KEDAULATAN NEGARA-BANGSA DALAM NOVEL LAYALY TURKISTAN KARYA NAJIB AL-KAILANI THE POLITICAL REASON OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE NATION STATE IN THE NOVEL "LAYELY TURKISTAN" BY NAJIB AL-KAILANI

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agus Sunarto
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Material Object ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Textual Data

Abstrak Penelitian ini mencoba untuk memahami politik kolonial yang dilakukan terhadap bangsa Turkistan dalam novel Nights in Turkistan karya Najib Al-Kailani melalui perspektif filsafat politik Giorgio Agamben. Lokus utama penelitian ini dengan perspektif tersebut mencoba menyibak proses normalisasi paradigma politik kolonial yang terdiri dari kekuasaan berdaulat, state of exception, bare life (ketelanjangan hidup), dan homo sacer. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif deskriptif. Metode ini digunakan karena sumber data dalam penelitian ini berupa data tekstual yang terdiri dari kata, kalimat, paragraf dari objek material penelitian. Praktik kolonial yang dijalankan oleh pihak Cina dan Rusia menjadikan bangsa Turkistan mengalami degradasi eksistensinya baik dari aspek sosial, politik, maupun budaya. Karena itu penelitian ini akan menyibak lebih dalam proses kolonial yang dilakukan oleh Cina dan Rusia dari kritik filsafat politik Giorgio Agamben. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pertama, praktik kolonialisme membawai konsekuensi kekuasaan berdaulat yang mencari legalitas hukum sekaligus penangguhan hukum terhadap aksi koloni; kedua, bangsa Turkistan yang tereduksi dan terdegradasi eksistensinya rentan terhadap tindakan koersif kolonial sehingga mereka tidak memiliki aksesibilas yang sempurna. Kata kunci: State Of Exception, Homo Sacer dan Layaly Turkistan Abstract This paper examines to understand the colonial politics that was carried out against the Turkistan people in Najib Al-Kailani's novel Nights in Turkistan through the framework of Giorgio Agamben's political philosophy. The main focus of this research with this perspective is trying to uncover the process of normalizing the colonial political paradigm, which consists of sovereign power, state of exception, bare life, and homo sacer. This research uses the descriptive qualitative method. This method is used because the data of this research is textual data consisting of words, sentences, paragraphs by the material object. The colonial practices carried out by the Chinese and Russians made the Turkistan nation experience a degradation of its existence from both social, political, and cultural aspects. Thus, this research will reveal more deeply the colonial process carried out by China and Russia than Giorgio Agamben's critique of political philosophy. The results of this study indicate that first, the practice of colonialism carries the consequences of sovereign power seeking legality as well as legal suspension of colony actions; second, the Turkistan peoples who were reduced and degraded in existence were vulnerable to colonial coercive action so that they did not have perfect accessibility. Keyword: State Of Exception, Homo Sacer dan Layaly Turkistan

scholarly journals Exceção e vida nua: diálogos entre a literatura de Nassar e a de Sófocles / Exception and life nua: dialogues between the literature of Nassar and of Sophocles

Profanações ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Elijames Moraes dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Este artigo propõe analisar como as categorias do estado de exceção e da vida nua são dramatizados nos textos Antígona, de Sófocles, e Lavoura Arcaica, de Raduan Nassar. Para alcançar o objetivo estabelecido, consideramos os estudos sobre esses conceitos propostos no projeto Homo Sacer, de Giorgio Agamben (2007; 2014), entre outras fontes que respaldam este estudo. Seguindo a proposta agambeniana, enfatizamos a relação de soberania com o estado de exceção, culminando, muitas vezes na eliminação do vivente. Aspecto este que fica evidente no desenrolar das ações presentes em ambas as narrativas em análise.AbstractThis article proposes to analyze how the categories of the state of exception and bare life are dramatized in the texts Antigone, by Sophocles, and Ancient tillage¸ by Raduan Nassar. To reach the established objective, we consider the studies on these concepts proposed in the project Homo Sacer, by Giorgio Agamben (2007, 2014), among other sources that support this study. Following the Agambenian proposal, we emphasize the relationship of sovereignty with the state of exception, culminating, often in the elimination of the living. This aspect is evident in the unfolding of the actions present in both narratives under analysis.

scholarly journals “Everywhere Felt and Nowhere Seen”: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the “Sovereign Paradox"

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Johanna Skibsrud
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Text ◽  
The Other ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Order Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Things Fall Apart ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This paper argues that Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart reflects what Giorgio Agamben refers to as the “sovereign paradox” on two levels: first—as reflected by the subject of the novel—on the juridico-political level, and second, on the level of the language and structure of the novel itself.  The relationship between these two levels is made clear by Agamben, who uses language as the prime example of the “sovereign paradox” implicit to the juridical order.  “Language,” he writes, “is the sovereign who, in a permanent state of exception, declares that there is nothing outside language and that language is always beyond itself” (21).  Obeirika’s words in Things Fall Apart: “There is no story that is not true” (Achebe 14), illustrates this “sovereign paradox” by pointing on the one hand to the omniscient authority of the narrative text, while on the other directly undermining that authority.  I argue that it is by doing away with the binary system of what can and should be considered true and untrue that the reflexive narrative – of which Achebe’s novel is a prime example – positions itself in a “permanent state of exception” (Agamben 21). Things Fall Apart establishes for itself “a zone of indistinction” (Agamben 47) characterized by the very impossibility of arriving at the “truth” as such, or “of distinguishing between outside and inside, nature and exception” (37). A “zone of indistinction” is constructed on a textual as well as a political-historical level by the novel’s transgression of its own narrative borders.

scholarly journals STATE OF EXCEPTION THROUGH RASISME IN GO SET A WATCHMAN IN AGAMBEN’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Damay Rahmawati ◽  
Ramadhani Ardianto Karsa Sunaryono ◽  
Mira Utami
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Black People ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Harper Lee

This study aims to see racism in the novel Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee as state of exception; a political philosophy of Agamben. Agamben's idea of ​​state of exception is used in this study as the theoretical framework. This research specifically reveals how racism becomes part of state of exception in American society around 1960s when the novel was written. The analysis focuses on issues of racism in American society as depicted in the novel. The issue of racism is taken with the aim of analyzing state of exception in USA, in dealing with racial discrimination. After analyzing the issues of racism and state of exception in the novel, this study reveals that racism in American society is politically structured. The finding of this study is the discrimination experienced by lower class citizens who are dominated by black people, as the impact of state of exception which affects their citizenship rights.

SAYYIDA ZAYNAB IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION: SHIʿI SAINTHOOD AS “QUALIFIED LIFE” IN CONTEMPORARY SYRIA

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Szanto
Keyword(s):  
Refugee Camp ◽  
The State ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Nazi Concentration Camp ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
The Law

AbstractAccording to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee campcumshrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure ofhomo sacer, who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (orzoē) in states of exception.

scholarly journals Estado de exceção como regra: a vida nua sob o “eclipse político” em Giorgio Agamben / State of exception as a rule: the bare life under the "political eclipse" in Giorgio Agamben

Profanações ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 269
Author(s):  
Maria Do Socorro Catarina de Sousa Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legal Security ◽  
Original Objective

Um dos temas de maior relevância abordado por Giorgio Agamben diz respeito ao estado de exceção como paradigma político, ou seja, o estado de exceção não se restringe aos Estados totalitários, mas a uma prática governamental que vem se propagando rapidamente, inclusive nas sociedades democráticas. Assim, o presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar, a partir de duas obras que compõem o Projeto Homo Sacer, a saber, Homo Sacer: o poder soberano e a vida nua I (2002), e Estado de Exceção: homo sacer II (2004), os principais elementos que formatam a teoria agambeniana do estado de exceção como paradigma de governo e como o delineamento de suas teses nos permite falar em “eclipse político”, o qual está concretizado na impotência do cidadão diante do poder soberano, a figura híbrida que tem a sua disposição não apenas a máquina governamental, mas o próprio ordenamento jurídico desvirtuado de seu objetivo original de proteção e segurança jurídica para um complexo e malicioso mecanismo de manutenção da “ordem social”. AbstractOne of the most relevant topics addressed by Giorgio Agamben is the state of exception as a political paradigm, that is, the state of exception is not restricted to totalitarian states, but to a government practice that is spreading rapidly, even in democratic societies. Thus, this article aims to analyze, from two works that make up the Homo Sacer Project, namely Homo Sacer: sovereign power and naked life I (2002), and State of Exception: homo sacer II (2004) ), the main elements that form the agambenian theory of the state of exception as a paradigm of government and how the delineation of its theses allows us to speak in "political eclipse", which is concretized in the impotence of the citizen before the sovereign power, the hybrid figure which has at its disposal not only the governmental machine, but the legal system itself distorted from its original objective of protection and legal security for a complex and malicious mechanism of maintenance of the "social order".

scholarly journals The Use of Bodies by Giorgio Agamben

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Rachael C Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy

This article reviews Giorgio Agamben's ninth installment in his Homo Sacer series, The Use of Bodies by Giorgio Agamben, translated by Adam Kotsko. The review considers Agamben's political philosophy framing of the body with reference to existentialist philosophy.

A Confederacy of Dunces: mental illness in the life and work of John Kennedy Toole

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 467-469
Author(s):  
Abhijit Pal
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Paranoid Schizophrenia ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Societal Values ◽  
Mental Illness Attitudes ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Illness Attitudes ◽  
The Relationship

SummaryThis article examines the life and work of John Kennedy Toole, focusing on his 1981 Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. Toole finished the novel in 1966 and, after failing to rework his manuscript to his editor's satisfaction, he shelved the project. Following this, he displayed symptoms typical of paranoid schizophrenia and he took his own life at the age of 31. In his novel, Toole parodies both psychoanalysis and the practice of psychiatry at the time, with a strong overlap with the emerging perspectives critical of psychiatry popularised by figures such as Szasz, Laing and Foucault. Toole's life and work have relevance for psychiatrists interested in the relationship between creativity and mental illness, attitudes towards psychiatry in the 1960s, and the interplay between societal values and judgements of mental health.

scholarly journals Beyond Agamben: Sovereignty, policing and ‘permissive space’ in South Africa, and beyond

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah-Jane Cooper-Knock
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Homo Sacer

The work of Giorgio Agamben has been widely used by criminologists and others to explore policing and sovereignty across the globe. In this article, I explore Agamben’s conceptual framework, focusing on the commonly deployed ideas of ‘state of exception’ and ‘ homo sacer’. I highlight the limitations of Agamben’s legalistic theories, and argue that they leave us with an impoverished understanding of how sovereignty is negotiated in everyday life. As I demonstrate, scholars who have attempted to adapt Agamben’s ideas have failed to overcome these limitations in his analysis. I conclude that we must look for new ways forward and introduce the concept of ‘permissive space’ as an alternative to Agamben’s theoretical framework: an idea that allows a more nuanced and comprehensive analysis. Drawing on 10 months of fieldwork in Durban, South Africa, I illustrate the utility of this terminology for our analysis of policing.

scholarly journals L’amour et la révolte dans Le couteau sur la table, roman de Jacques Godbout

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Natalie Mojžíšová
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Jacques Godbout ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Individual Issue

The novel depicts the relationship of a young couple living in Montreal. The poetics of the text not only provides the reader with an unusual aesthetic experience but also reveals interesting details about life in Canada in the 1960s. We will introduce the main characters of the novel and focus on some of its aspects, especially those moments where the political situation, whether historically distant or recent, is reflected in the life of modern society. The sixties of the twentieth century were imbued with a desire to resist authority which was lived collectively and also as an individual issue. In the novel, the theme of revolt is portrayed on both these levels, but it shows that it is not always easy to realize one’s ideas in practice.The structure of the novel which refers to the influence of nouveau roman is composed of fragmentary narrative, repetitive allusions and unfinished sentences. Using all these techniques Jacques Godbout has created a captivating text, fascinating especially by its disquieting dynamics.

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