Engaging with a fundamental question at the heart of the Western tradition of political thought, namely the question of political action, this book considers a broad range of issues, from resistance to political mobilization. It explores the nature of political activity by engaging with Giorgio Agamben and his key interlocutors such as Hannah Arendt and Alexandre Kojčve. It offers new insights into the complexity of Agambens political thought and intervenes in contemporary debates on issues such as identity politics and protest movements.
A fresh contribution to Agamben scholarship and a rigorous reflection on one of the core political questions of the occidental tradition, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students from a broad range of subject areas, including political theory, political philosophy, political science, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and biopolitics.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 From sector to activity
1.2 Legacy: praxis and poisis
1.3 Structure of analysis
2 AGAMBENS CONCEPTUAL LOGIC
2.1 Potentiality
2.2 The taking place of language
2.3 The coming community
2.4 Gesture and pure means
2.5 Inoperativity
2.6 Manner and profanation
2.7 A different use of praxis and poisis
3 BEYOND POISIS
3.1 Productive negativity
3.2 Agamben and the end of history
3.2.1 Animality and snobbery
3.2.2 The suspension of the dialectic
3.3 Production unraveled
4 BEYOND PRAXIS
4.1 The vulnerability of new beginnings
4.2 Stability in the realm of human affairs
4.3 The limits of founding: Arendt on Montesquieu and power
4.4 Principles of action
4.5 The contamination of praxis
4.6 Within praxis and poisis
5 GESTURES AND PERFORMATIVES
5.1 From institutional performatives to faith in the word: J.L. Austin and
Agamben
5.2 Iterability versus pure performatives: Derrida, Butler, and Agamben
5.3 The Shadow of Derrida
6 CONCLUSIONS: ACTION UPON ACTION
6.1 Undoing the doing, unmaking the making
6.2 Being versus action: notes on identity politics
REFERENCES
Katarina Sjöblom is working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation, defended in November 2023, explored the nature of political activity by engaging with the thoughts of Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Alexandre Kojčve, and other prominent thinkers in the continental tradition of political thought. More generally, her research interests include modern political theory, social and resistance movements, biopolitics, and the relation between aesthetics and politics.
More info about Taylor & Francis e-books