The Real Possibility of Physical Killing
A Feminist Critique of Carl Schmitt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6231193 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robyn Marasco (0000-0001-8737-1506, Hunter College, City University of New York, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1067-1079 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ajps.12803 |
| OpenAlex | W4382394914 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 17 |
This article offers a feminist critique of Carl Schmitt, with a particular focus on Political Theology and The Concept of the Political. It addresses a pathos of masculinity that pervades Schmitt's rhetoric and helps to explain the hold that his ideas have on so many thinkers across the political spectrum. It argues as well for the surprising insights that feminists can draw from Schmitt's abstract political concepts. In decentering the infamous friend—enemy distinction and developing instead the existentialist claim about “the real possibility of physical killing,” we can see Schmitt's pathos more clearly, but we can also theorize the political in ways that Schmitt could not. Schmittian existentialism permits us to see the family as a primary political institution, sex and gender as forms of political power, and femicide as a real political problem. This article concludes with a discussion of Andrea Dworkin, in some ways more Schmittian than Schmitt himself, who pursues this principle of political existentialism—“the real possibility of physical killing”—in a radically feminist direction
Epistemology · Existentialism · Masculinity · Pathos · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Gender Studies · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Psychology · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy
Roman Catholicism and political form
Words on Fire
The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy
Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss
Law as Politics
Who's afraid of Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt
Fear, Technology, and the State
Maistre, Donoso Cortes, and the Legacy of Catholic Authoritarianism
The Predicaments of Left-Schmittianism
Hamlet or Hecuba
Carl Schmitt and the Question of the Aesthetic
Theories of femicide and their significance for social research
The Evidence of Experience
Carl Schmitt, political existentialism, and the total state
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |