Agamben and the Politics of Human Rights: Statelessness, Images, Violence

Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 6
NOTES......Page 11
Note......Page 12
INTRODUCTION: HUMAN RIGHTS AS A PROBLEM......Page 13
Securitisation/Immunisation......Page 14
THE HUMANITARIAN HORIZON......Page 17
Human Security?......Page 21
THE PARADIGM OF STATELESSNESS......Page 24
THE RIGHTS OF THE STATELESS......Page 28
CONCLUSION......Page 31
Notes......Page 32
2. Human Rights in History......Page 35
NATURAL RIGHTS AS A PRECURSOR TO HUMAN RIGHTS?......Page 37
'FREEDOM AND NECESSITY', 'PUBLIC AND PRIVATE'......Page 39
AN EVALUATION OF ARENDT'S EUROPEAN ARGUMENT......Page 45
SLAVERY - OR FREEDOM AND NECESSITY REVISITED......Page 47
Athenian and Roman Slavery......Page 48
ARISTOTLE AND SLAVERY......Page 50
ANTIGONE......Page 53
Hegel and Slavery/Necessity......Page 56
Hegel on Tragedy and Slavery......Page 57
CONCLUSION......Page 58
Notes......Page 59
3. Agamben and the Rise of 'Bare Life'......Page 61
EXCURSUS ON LIFE......Page 64
An Archaeology of Life and Labour......Page 66
The Nineteenth Century and the Rise of Darwinism......Page 67
Measurable Life......Page 68
SACRED LIFE......Page 72
BARE LIFE......Page 75
THE DEADLY PRESERVATION OF LIFE......Page 76
LAW AND/OR ORDER......Page 78
The Factical and Contingency......Page 81
THE CAMP......Page 84
Notes......Page 86
4. Language, the Human and Bare Life: From Ungroundedness to Inoperativity......Page 89
THE UNGROUNDEDNESS OF THE HUMAN AND THE INHUMAN: VIOLENCE, LAW AND GESTURE......Page 94
POTENTIALITY, IMPOTENTIALITY AND (THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF) BEARING WITNESS......Page 97
The Image as the Impossibility of an Image of the Human......Page 99
Poetry and Life......Page 100
'Inoperativity'......Page 102
Notes......Page 106
5. Nihilism or Politics? An Interrogation of Agamben......Page 108
AUSCHWITZ AND THE MUSELMANN: EXPLOITATION? AESTHETICISATION?......Page 110
ZOË AND BIOS, BARE LIFE AND HOMO SACER......Page 115
LAW AND NOMOS......Page 116
AGAMBEN AND SOVEREIGNTY......Page 118
THE QUESTION OF POLITICS IN AGAMBEN......Page 124
RANCIÈRE'S ARGUMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS......Page 127
Notes......Page 129
6. Politics, Power and Violence in Agamben......Page 131
Politics and the political......Page 132
CONSTITUTING / CONSTITUTED POWER......Page 134
Inoperativeness and Exodus: Positive Biopolitics......Page 136
DIVINE VIOLENCE: BENJAMIN'S AND AGAMBEN'S ANARCHIC APPROACH TO POLITICS......Page 138
CONCLUSION......Page 147
Notes......Page 148
INTRODUCTION......Page 151
AGAMBEN, THE IMAGE AND THE HUMAN......Page 155
Gesture and Mediality......Page 156
Mediality and Indexicality......Page 157
THE IMAGE, VIOLENCE AND THE INDEXICAL SIGN......Page 159
Analogon, Schema and 'Inoperativity'......Page 161
THE IMAGE, DECEPTION AND THE POLITICAL......Page 163
THE IMAGE AGAINST THE SPECTACLE......Page 166
AGAMBEN AND THE MUSELMANN AS IMAGE OR PERSONIFICATION......Page 167
CELEBRITIES AND REFUGEES......Page 170
CONCLUSION......Page 171
Notes......Page 172
8. Living Human Rights......Page 175
SOVEREIGNTY REVISITED......Page 176
Bataille's Vision of Sovereignty......Page 177
VIOLENCE......Page 181
Violence, Law and Sovereignty......Page 182
An Ontology of Violence?......Page 184
Arendt on Violence......Page 185
Violence as Trauma......Page 186
Violence as Violation......Page 187
Levinas and the Other......Page 189
'Collateral Damage'......Page 190
LEVINAS AND HUMAN RIGHTS......Page 191
Ontological Poli tics: Living the Freedom that we Already Have......Page 193
CONCLUSION......Page 194
Thinking Othelwise......Page 197
Notes......Page 198
Bibliography......Page 201
Index......Page 211