Since the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995, Giorgio Agamben has been a leading figure in Continental political philosophy, engaging simultaneously with niche philosophical debates and real-world political events. This course will provide an introduction to Giorgio Agamben’s political thought by situating Agamben’s political philosophy within its political context across his writings. Covering key works in the Homo Sacer series, as well as Agamben’s interventions into contemporary issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this course will address the concepts most central to understanding his thought, including biopolitics, sovereign power, the state of exception, and destituent potential. Each session will be divided into two parts: a one-hour lecture on the content and concepts for that week and a one-hour discussion session which considers how these concepts manifest themselves in our contemporary political crises.
Lecture One: Biopolitics and Sovereign Power
This lecture will, firstly, provide some brief biographical and intellectual background on Agamben, detailing his background and primary philosophical influences. This will lead into a discussion of the two concepts which lie at the heart of his first major political work: biopolitics and sovereign power, concepts drawn and adapted from the writings of Michel Foucault and Carl Schmitt.
Core readings:
Agamben, Giorgio (1998), Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen) (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
- Introduction: pp. 1-12
- §1.1. The Paradox of Sovereignty: pp. 15-29
- §3.1 – §3.3. The Politicization of Life; Biopolitics and the Rights of Man; Life
That Does Not Deserve to Live: pp. 119-143
Supplementary reading:
Whyte, Jessica (2013), Catastrophe and Redemption: The Political Thought of Giorgio Agamben (New York: SUNY Press)
- Chapter 1: The Politics of Life: pp. 19-46
Lecture Two: State of Exception
The second session will consider the concept of the State of Exception, linking it – as Agamben scholar Adam Kotsko recommends – to Agamben’s writings on civil war and stasis. In this way, we can read Agamben’s second and third books of the Homo Sacer series in conjunction, and recognise them as steps towards his development of a theory of government and oikonomia.
Core readings:
Agamben, Giorgio (2005), State of Exception (trans. Kevin Attell) (Chicago: Chicago University Press)
- Chapters 1-4: pp. 1-64
Agamben, Giorgio (2015), Stasis: Civil War as Political Paradigm (trans. Nicholas Heron) (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)
- Chapter 1: pp. 1-19
Supplementary reading:
Kotsko, Adam (2020), Agamben’s Philosophical Trajectory (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)
- Chapter 3, section 3: pp. 112-118
Lecture Three: Government and Oikonomia
The third lecture will turn to Agamben’s writings on political and economic theology, particularly the themes of government, oikonomia, and capitalism. Following Agamben, we will discuss the theological foundations of contemporary capitalistic forms of economic governance and consider some of the ways in which contemporary capitalism operates as a religion.
Core readings:
Agamben, Giorgio (2008), The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (trans. Lorenzo Chiesa, with Matteo Mandarini) (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
- §2 The Mystery of the Economy: pp. 17-52
Agamben, Giorgio (2019), Creation and Anarchy: The Work of Art and the Religion of Capitalism (trans. Adam Kotsko) (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
- Chapter 5: Capitalism as Religion: pp. 66-77
Supplementary reading:
Dean, Mitchell (2012), ‘Governmentality Meets Theology: The King Reigns but He Does Not Govern’, Theory, Culture & Society Vol. 29, No. 3: pp. 145-158
Lecture Four: Form-of-Life and Destituent Potential
Agamben’s Homo Sacer series was never intended as a traditional work of political philosophy which outlines its critique at the beginning and showcases the prospects for liberation at its end. As such, this fourth session will cover material written earlier in Agamben’s career as a political philosopher alongside the final work of the Homo Sacer series in order to elaborate the key concepts Agamben sees as capable of countering the repressive logics he opposes: form-of-life and destituent potential.
Core readings:
Agamben, Giorgio (2000), Means Without End: Notes on Politics (trans. Vincenzo Binetti and Cesare Casarino) (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)
- Chapter 1: Form-of-Life: pp. 3-12
Agamben, Giorgio (2016), The Use of Bodies (trans. Adam Kotsko) (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
- Section 3, §2, 3, 6, 7: pp. 207-219, 234-245
Agamben, Giorgio (1998), Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen) (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
- Threshold: pp. 42-44
Agamben, Giorgio (2016), The Use of Bodies (trans. Adam Kotsko) (Stanford: Stanford University Press)
- Epilogue: Toward a Theory of Destituent Potential: pp. 263-279
Lecture Five: Contemporary Interventions: COVID-19 and the Question of Palestine
The final session for this course will consider some of Agamben’s more recent interventions on contemporary political questions, particularly his writings on the COVID-19 pandemics and lockdowns, as well as his brief interventions on Israel and Palestine. We will consider how these interventions relate to (or potentially break away from) Agamben’s political philosophy outlined in the previous weeks and question the role of the philosopher in contemporary political crises.
Core readings:
Agamben, Giorgio (2021), Where Are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics (trans. Valeria Dani) (London: ERIS)
- Chapters 1-5, 9, 13, 18, 20: pp. 11-25, 38-41, 55-58, 82-85, and 88-95
Agamben, Giorgio (30/10/2023), ‘The Silence of Gaza’, Quodlibet (trans. Paul Gorby): https://pgorby.wordpress.com/2023/10/30/giorgio-agamben-the-silence-of-gaza- translation/
Agamben, Giorgio (30/09/2024), ‘The End of Judaism’, Quodlibet (trans. Ill Will Editions): https://illwill.com/the-end-of-judaism
Agamben, Giorgio (07/11/2024), ‘The Exile and the Citizen’, Quodlibet (trans. Autonomies/Julius Gavroche): https://autonomies.org/2024/11/giorgio-agamben-the- exile-and-the-citizen/
Supplementary reading:
Gorby, Paul (2023), ‘The Biopolitics of Fear: Assessing Agamben’s Analysis of the COVID-19 Lockdowns’, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory. Online First: pp. 1-17
Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012), ‘Abandoning Gaza’ in Marcelo Svirsky and Simone Bignall (ed.s), Agamben and Colonialism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press): pp. 178-203