Resisting Agamben
The biopolitics of shame and humiliation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5778633 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lars Guenther (0000-0002-6146-164X, Vanderbilt University, corresponding author), Lisa Guenther (Vanderbilt University) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 59-79 |
| Publication date | 2011-11-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy & Social Criticism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0191-4537 • E-ISSN: 1461-734X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0191453711421604 |
| OpenAlex | W2053419643 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 12 |
In Remnants of Auschwitz, Giorgio Agamben argues that the hidden structure of subjectivity is shame. In shame, I am consigned to something that cannot be assumed, such that the very thing that makes me a subject also forces me to witness my own desubjectification. Agamben's ontological account of shame is problematic insofar as it forecloses collective responsibility and collapses the distinction between shame and humiliation. By recontextualizing three of Agamben's sources - Primo Levi, Robert Antelme and Maurice Blanchot - I develop an alternative account of shame as the structure of intersubjectivity, and of a collective responsibility that is more fundamental than the subject itself. On this basis, I sketch the preliminary outline of a biopolitics of resistance rooted in the ethics of alterity. The intuition driving this approach is that life is never bare; even in situations of extreme affliction there remains a relation to alterity which provides a starting point for resistance
Alterity · Biopower · Epistemology · Humiliation · Intersubjectivity · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Shame · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Subjectivity · Witness · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Psychology · Social Psychology
Of Nakedness and Clothing
Shame is Personal, Not Ontological
Organizing sovereign power
Land, Life, and Emotional Landscapes at the Margins of Bangladesh
Active Ignorance, Antiracism, and the Psychology of White Shame
Do we have the right to call ourselves an inclusive university? Untold stories of queer students at a rural university in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Kyrgyzstan's dark ages
Rectal examinations in childbirth
Shame at being human” as a transformative political concept and praxis
Gender and the Politics of Shame
Humiliation as a Harm of Sexual Violence
Thus spoke the student from Bologna
Shame, Belonging, and Biopolitics
Rape, ritual, rupture, and repair
Migrant protest in times of crisis
Technologies of abjection
Feminist Rage
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,42 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |