scholarly journals The Postcolonial Bare Life: Reflections on Agamben and the Coronavirus

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Pacheco ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Postcolonial State

The ongoing pandemic has undeniably propagated an atmosphere of paranoia and discontent in both the West and the East, and it is in this context where Giorgio Agamben wrote a brief but controversial article where he argues that this pandemic enables governments to opportunistically decree a state of exception that will lead to tyranny. Critics have generally responded negatively to Agamben’s views, given that this is not the case in the West. It is becoming apparent, however, that the very thing Agamben feared is happening in post-colonial states. In this paper, I look at how the current pandemic enables a postcolonial state like the Philippines to define (or redefine) the notion of life through authoritarian measures as it claims a strong democratic mandate. My reflections on Agamben takes off from Rodrigo Duterte’s national speeches during the pandemic. I aim to show that his manifestly militarized response is a manifestation of the sovereign exception that politicizes and separates zo? (which is mere biological life) from bios (which is livable life that can participate politically), as Agamben might put it. Finally, I offer reflections on how the postcolonial legacy of the Philippines could potentially complicate how we might think about the notion of bare life—a figure that is neither zo? nor bios.

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 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 Estado de exceção: Giorgio Agamben entre Walter Benjamin e Carl Schmitt [State of exception: Giorgio Agamben between Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt]

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (47) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Danigui Renigui Martins de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
The State ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
The West ◽  
The Creation

O presente trabalho pretende apresentar algumas considerações acerca do Estado de exceção pensado por Agamben a partir do diálogo existente entre Walter Benjamin e Carl Schmitt. Para realizar tal tarefa teremos como referência basilar o capítulo “Gigantomachia intorno a un vuoto”, da obra Estado de exceção. No referido capítulo, Agamben nos revela a existência de um diálogo entre Schmitt e Benjamin que influenciou a criação do conceito de exceção em ambos. Porém, para Agamben, o conceito de exceção parece ser algo que ultrapassa a discussão realizada por Benjamin e Schmitt, revelando a estrutura jurídico-política do Ocidente.[The present work intends to show some considerations about the State of exception thought by Agamben from the existing dialogue between Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt. To carry out this task we will have as a reference the chapter "Gigantomachia intorno a un vuoto", from the book State of exception. In that chapter, Agamben reveals to us the existence of a dialogue between Schmitt and Benjamin that influenced the creation of the concept of exception for the both of them. However, for Agamben, the concept of exception seems to be something that goes beyond the discussion held by Benjamin and Schmitt, revealing the legal-political structure of the West.]

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

Immunity, Bare Life, and the Thanatopolitics of Reproduction

2017 ◽  
pp. 105-144
Author(s):  
Penelope Deutscher
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The Status

Considers the status of reproduction and abortion for the two leading proponents of the thanatopolitical interpretations of Foucauldian biopolitics: Italian philosophers Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito. Re-evaluates a number of feminist critiques of their work. Argues for a new understanding of abortion, by means not of an application of Esposito and Agamben, but through an ‘inversion’ of some of their resources. For example, the chapter argues for an understanding of politicized abortion in terms of an “inversion’ of a term extensively discussed by Agamben, the state of exception. Proposes this approach as an alternative to other means of feminist critique of these philosophers.

Music and the State of Exception in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men

2013 ◽  
pp. 287-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Experience Of Time ◽  
Formal Tool ◽  
Alfonso Cuaron

This article appears in the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media edited by Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson. In Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Giorgio Agamben provides an analysis of the “state of exception,” that situation in which the sovereign, in response to crisis, suspends the efficacy of the rule of law. This juridical move has ontological implications, for it also suspends our everyday experience of time. Music, which can emulate the concentrated temporality of the state of exception, offers itself as a powerful formal tool for its cinematic realization. In his 2006 setting of the P.D. James novel Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón conjures a future dystopia that extrapolates this complicated political terrain. Drawing upon the complex diegetic and non-diegetic soundscape of the film, this discussion outlines the means through which music and sound intensify the filmic depiction of the state of exception.

Unexpected spaces of confinement: Aversive technologies, intellectual disability, and “bare life”

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
DL Adams ◽  
Nirmala Erevelles
Keyword(s):  
State Of Exception ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Real Material ◽  
Behavioral Techniques ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Adults With Intellectual Disabilities

Giorgio Agamben describes the “camp” as the “zone of indistinction between law and violence” where bodies located in exceptional spaces are stripped of citizenship rights and embody “bare life.” We deploy Agamben’s analysis to the context of the everyday violence of aversive technologies meted out against students living at the dangerous intersections of race, class, gender, and disability and located in unexpected spaces of confinement such as schools, developmental centers, and family homes. We argue here that the logic of the “state of exception” applies to disabled children and adults where acts of violence enacted via disciplinary practices are justified as being outside the realm of the legal and subject to sovereign power. The locus of our study is the Judge Rothenberg Center that over the past 40 years has utilized behavioral techniques that have been investigated as abusive and only very recently has been held accountable for these infractions. We examine the discourses used to justify these forms of inhumane punishment as well as the discourses that oppose them to foreground the real material implications of “how we understand the role of systems and institutions of punishment” in unexpected spaces of confinement of children/adults with intellectual disabilities.

scholarly journals Pensando a Ditadura Militar Brasileira à luz do Estado de Exceção de Giorgio Agamben/Thinking the brazilian military dictatorship in the light of the state of exception of Giorgio Agamben

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Fábio Abreu Passos
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Political Events ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
The Military

Resumo: Alguns eventos políticos transcorridos em um passado recente de uma nação, como uma ditadura militar, que perdurou durante vinte e quatro anos, produzem sequelas aparentemente invisíveis, com sintomas cuja origem é difícil de ser diagnosticada. A dificuldade desse diagnóstico está na razão de que, para muitos, a ditadura militar ocorrida em solo brasileiro se aproxima do não-Ser de Parmênides: impensável e indizível, algo que simplesmente deve ser esquecido. Mas como reconciliar-se com o nosso passado e construir bases sólidas de uma nova democracia se não falamos e refletimos sobre nossas mazelas fomentadas, fundamentalmente, em “nossos campos”, nos porões dos DOPS? O presente artigo tem como objetivo refletir acerca de algumas características constitutivas da ditadura militar brasileira, transcorrida entre os anos de 1964 a 1988, balizada pelos conceitos de estado de exceção, vida nua e campo do filósofo italiano Giorgio Agamben. A pesquisa se justifica, uma vez que, em nosso entendimento, aproximar a ditadura militar brasileira com tópicas da filosofia política de Agamben, nos dota de importantes ferramentas argumentativas que nos auxiliam na compreensão do que se passou no Brasil em seus “anos de chumbo”. Abstract: Some political events passed in the recent past of a nation, as a military dictatorship, which lasted for twenty-four years, produce aparently invisible sequels, with symptoms whose origin is difficult to be diagnosed. The difficulty of this diagnosis is the reason that, for many, the military dictatorship that took place on Brazilian soil approaches the not-Being of Parmenides: unthinkable and unspeakable, something that should just be forgotten. But how to reconcile with our past and build solid foundations of a new democracy if we do not talk and reflect on our ills fostered mainly on "our fields", the holds of the Departments of Political and Social Order? This article aims to reflect on some constitutive features of the Brazilian military dictatorship, elapsed between the years 1964 to 1988, buoyed by the state of emergency concepts, bare life and field of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. The research is justified since, in our view, approaching the Brazilian military dictatorship with topical political philosophy of Agamben, endows us with important argumentative tools that help us understand what happened in Brazil in his "years of lead". Key words: Brazilian military dictatorship, Giorgio Agamben, state of exception, bare life, field.

PENSAMENTO POLÍTICO EM GIORGIO AGAMBEN

Professare ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Claudemir Aparecido Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Political Freedom ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Control ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social

<p class="resumoabstract">O professor Giorgio Agamben tem elaborado críticas à engenhosa estrutura política ocidental moderna. Avalia os mecanismos de controle estatal, nos quais os denomina ‘dispositivos’, cuja força está na imbricação às normas jurídico-teológicas com seus similares ritos e liturgias. Suas ocorrências e legitimidade preponderam no tecido social cuja organização sistêmica se põe quase como elemento natural e não cultural. O texto tem por objetivo explorar a concepção política de Agamben sobre a política contemporânea, especialmente considerando seu livro: ‘Estado de Exceção’, cuja investigação apresenta a possibilidade de atenuação dos direitos de cidadania e o enfraquecimento da prática da liberdade política e o processo de relação dos indivíduos no meio social através da redução das subjetividades ‘autênticas’. Analisamos ainda a transferência do mundo sacro elaborado pelos teólogos católicos presente na modernidade à política cuja democracia moderna faz do homem (sujeito) tornar-se objeto do poder político. Faz também, reflexão dos conceitos de subjetivação e dessubjetivação relacionando-os às implicações políticas do homem moderno. A pesquisa é bibliográfica com ênfase na análise dos conceitos elaborados por Agamben, especialmente quanto ao ‘dispositivo’. Conclui que o indivíduo ocidental, de modo geral, sofre o processo de dessubjetivação e está ‘nu’, indefeso e alienado politicamente. Ele precisa voltar-se ao processo de ‘profanação’ dos dispositivos para libertar-se das vinculações orientadoras que forçosamente o descaracteriza enquanto ser ativo e livre.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Palavras-chave</strong>: Política. Liberdade. Subjetivação.</p><h3>ABSTRACT</h3><p class="resumoabstract">Professor Giorgio Agamben has been criticizing the ingenious modern Western political structure. It evaluates the mechanisms of state control, in which it calls them 'devices', whose strength lies in the overlap with legal-theological norms with their similar rites and liturgies. Its occurrences and legitimacy preponderate in the social fabric whose systemic organization is almost as a natural and not a cultural element. The text aims to explore Agamben's political conception of contemporary politics, especially considering his book 'State of Exception', whose research presents the possibility of attenuating citizenship rights and weakening the practice of political freedom and the individuals in the social environment through the reduction of 'authentic' subjectivities. We also analyze the transfer of the sacred world elaborated by the Catholic theologians present in the modernity to the politics whose modern democracy makes of the man - subject - to become object of the political power. It also reflects on the concepts of subjectivation and desubjectivation, relating them to the political implications of modern man. The research is bibliographical with emphasis in the analysis of the concepts elaborated by Agamben, especially with regard to the 'device'. He concludes that the Western individual, in general, suffers the process of desubjectivation and is 'naked', defenseless and politically alienated. He must turn to the process of 'desecration' of devices to free himself from the guiding bindings that forcibly demeanes him while being active and free.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Keywords</strong>: Politics. Freedom. Subjectivity. </p><p> </p>

Vamping the Stage

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Women Performers ◽  
New Music ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
The Many ◽  
Late Modern

Vamping the Stage is the first book-length historical and comparative examination of women, modernity, and popular music in Asia. This book documents the many ways that women performers have supported, challenged, and undermined representations of existing gendered norms in the entertainment industries of China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The case studies in this volume address colonial, post-colonial, as well as late modern conditions of culture as they relate to women’s musical practices and their changing social and cultural identities throughout Asia. Female entertainers were artistic pioneers of new music, new cinema, new forms of dance and theater, and new behavior and morals. Their voices, mediated through new technologies of film, radio, and the phonograph, changed the soundscape of global popular music and resonate today in all spheres of modern life. These female performers were not merely symbols of times that were rapidly changing. They were active agents in the creation of local performance cultures and the rise of a region-wide and globally oriented entertainment industry. Placing women’s voices in social and historical contexts, the authors critically analyze salient discourses, representations, meanings, and politics of “voice” in Asian popular music of the 20th century to the present day.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document