Time, Language, and Visuality in Agamben's Philosophy

249 Pages·2013·1.26 MB·English

by  Jenny Doussan

Time, Language, and Visuality in Agamben’s Philosophy
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Time, Language, and
Visuality in Agamben’s
Philosophy
Jenny Doussan
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
© Jenny Doussan 2013
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN: 978–1–137–28623–9
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In Memoriam
Emmett M. Bienvenu, S.J.
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Contents
Textual Note ix
Preface x
That Obscure Object of Will 1
1 The Problem with Metaphysics: Taking Place 5
Terminology: the poetic moment of thought 5
The taking place of violence and what remains to be thought 6
The Coming Community : will? whatever 2 2
Impossible coincidence: the coextensive but not coincident
currents of subjectivity 3 4
2 From Means Without End to the State of Exception 4 8
The saving grace of bare life 48
Indeterminacy and inversion: pure means and the camp 49
The sovereign ban and exception-as-rule 56
Language: arch-sovereign 6 1
Time, signification, and deconstruction’s open door 66
For and against the eternal return 77
3 From the M eta - to the Para -: On Method 9 7
Sleight of hand 97
Intention and exception 99
Classification and foundation 1 07
Para-ontology versus metaphysics 116
Idea of the signature 123
Transcendence, immanence, and the bipolar machine 133
4 Cat-and-Mouse Game 148
Duration and endurance 148
Messianic time: fullness and presence 151
Deactivation: state of exception redux 160
Pure means: to use the word that does not bind 170
Agamben’s political theology: cat-and-mouse redux 184
vii
viii Contents
5 Tabula Ocularia 198
Special being 1 98
Accidental autonomy 199
Battle of wills 203
Time, visibility, use 208
Tabula Ocularia 212
Coda 220
Bibliography 223
Index 229
Textual Note
The translations herein are drawn from the English language editions
of the original texts unless otherwise noted. The publication date that
follows the first mention of each title in the chapters refers to the orig-
inal publication date whereas edition information is indicated in the
individual citations. In some cases, particularly concerning the discus-
sion of language in Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive , I
have opted for a more literal translation in the interest of retaining the
terminological specificity demanded of this critique. In other cases, I
have made slight modifications to the existing translations in order to
engender continuity and lexical consistency among Agamben’s works.
Of note, I have chosen to uniformly translate p otenza as p otential or
potentiality ; however, in order to stress the sense of o perativity rather
than r eality , I have largely chosen to render a tto , frequently opposed to
potenza , not as actuality but as act , actuation , or active .
ix