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.

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.

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.

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.

The developmental history of solitary and supermax confinement: toward a phenomenology of the state of exception

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Polizzi
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Political ◽  
Developmental History ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
History Of

The phenomenology of solitary and supermax confinement reflects what Giorgio Agamben has defined as the state of exception. The state of exception is defined as the blurring of the legal and political order, which constructs a zone of indifference for those forced to endure this situation. This notion of the state of exception can be applied to the zone of indifference created by the Supreme Court, which seems unwilling to outlaw this harmful practice relative to 8th Amendment protections prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment and the political order which is all too inclined to continue use strategy. One of the central aspects of this “ecology of harm”, is the way in which the very structures of this type of confinement, helps to invite and legitimize abusive attitudes and behaviors in penitentiary staff.

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 Trajetórias e paisagens de exílio na narrativa de Primo Levi

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Anna Basevi
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Exile Literature ◽  
Primo Levi ◽  
The Status

Resumo: A obra de Primo Levi representa diversas formas do desterro – o exílio “absoluto”, o nóstos, a diáspora – que moldam a própria estrutura narrativa. A condição do exilado parece assumir a função metafórica de uma experiência histórica e humana, função que Claudio Magris atribui ao mundo judaico e que, ao mesmo tempo, se insere entre os tópicos da literatura do séc. XX. Nestes contextos distintos de exílio, o artigo evidencia as formas de descrever a paisagem estrangeira capazes de trazer à tona marcas estilísticas e narrativas do autor, em diálogo com a literatura clássica de Homero e Ovídio, e com as representações bíblicas. Esta proposta de leitura confirma a ligação estreita, presente em Levi, entre a condição de estrangeiro e a condição do ser humano no estado de exceção da Europa dominada pelo nazismo.Palavras-Chave: exílio; literatura; Primo Levi.Abstract: Primo Levi’s work portrays several exile forms: the “absolute” exile, the nóstos, the diaspora. These are kinds of exile that help shaping the narrative structure itself. The exiled seems to assume a metaphoric function for both historical and human condition. According to Claudio Magris, this function can be, at the same time, related to the Jewish world and inserted among literary topics from the 20th century. Drawing on those distinct contexts of exile, this article shows how the descriptions of the foreign landscape are evidence to the author’s stylistic and narrative features, in connection with the classic literature of Homer and Ovid, and with the biblical representations. This analysis proposal confirms the close connection, present in Levi, between the status of foreigner and the condition of the human being in the state of exception of Europe dominated by Nazism.Keywords: exile; literature; Primo Levi.

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.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-229
Author(s):  
Sarah Ghabrial
Keyword(s):  
Special Section ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Race Difference ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Main Intervention

Abstract The main intervention of this special section is to identify and reposition race and colonial law as (conspicuously) absent referents in widely accepted genealogies of the state of exception—most notably, that of Giorgio Agamben—and to offer methodological pathways, based on historical and contemporary examples, of how colonial legal histories might be “written back” into this history. Collectively, these essays attempt to show how race thinking and exception each operate as the other's alibi: exception instantiating and substantiating race difference, and race difference justifying exception and ushering its expansion and normalization in steadily more realms of law and life. In so doing, this special section proposes at least three possible avenues of further inquiry, each of which builds on and into the other: First, by virtue of their geographic and temporal scope, these essays signal a way of approaching sovereignty and exception not as totalizing and synthetic, but rather as multivalent, recursive, and regenerative. Second, the designation of “partial personhood” or “disabled citizenship” is offered as a way of conceptually traversing trans-Mediterranean and trans-Atlantic historical experiences and legal traditions. Third, these essays signal the need for more sustained exploration at the nexus of law, labor, and violence.

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