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The political philosophy of Giorgio Agamben: a critical evaluation

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 5; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1469076042000223437

1743-9647

Philippe Mesnard,

Violence, Religion, and Philosophy

Abstract This article is a critical evaluation of Giorgio Agamben's recent thought in the field of political philosophy, with a particular focus on the Italian philosopher's representation of Auschwitz, mostly incarnated through the metaphorical figure of the muselmann. The main argument is that Agamben's theory of negativity, which is the logical outcome of a considerable philosophical quest spanning over three decades, largely fails the test of temporality. Thus, Agamben openly denies any validity to history and his fascination for the cadaveric figure of the muselmann occults the complexity of life, survival and death inside or outside the concentration camp, a complexity which is portrayed in many historical accounts and eyewitness testimonies of Auschwitz .The conclusion is that Agamben's abstract aesthetics of disaster is quite symptomatic of contemporary philosophical representations of victims of violence, which tend to be detached from any socio‐historical framework of analysis. Notes Translated into English as Giorgio Agamben, Means without End: Notes on Politics (city: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), translator's note. Translated into English as Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), translator's note. Translated into English as Giorgio Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (New York: Zone Books, 1999), translator's note. Translated into English as Giorgio Agamben, The Open: Man and Animal (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), translator's note. Giorgio Agamben, Le Langage et la mort (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1982), p.13. Translator's note: this book was translated into English as Giorgio Agamben, Language and Death: The Place of Negativity (city: University of Minnesota Press, 1991). Translated into English as Lévinas, Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (city: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1980), translator's note. Translated into English as Lévinas, Otherwise than Being: Or Beyond Essence (city: Duquesne University Press, 1998), translator's note. Giorgio Agamben, Enfance et histoire (Paris: Payot, 1978), p.61. Translator's note: this book was translated into English as Infancy and History: The Destruction of Experience (city: Verso Books, 1996). Translated into English as Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community (city: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), translator's note. Giorgio Agamben, Bartleby ou la création (Paris: Circé, 1995), p.43. Giorgio Agamben, Homo sacer (Paris: Seuil, 1997), p.14. Agamben borrows this term from Jean‐Luc Nancy, with whom he shares many intellectual affiliations and orientations. Giorgio Agamben, Le Temps qui reste (Paris: Payot‐Rivages, 2000), p.46. Giorgio Agamben, L'Ouvert. De l'homme à l'animal (Paris: Payot‐Rivages, 2002), p.42. Agamben (note 11), p.17. Giorgio Agamben, Ce qui reste d'Auschwitz (Paris: Payot‐Rivages, 1999), p.18. Ibid. p.141. Thomas C. Wall, Radical Passivity: Levinas, Blanchot and Agamben (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999), p.121. See Longin, Traité du sublime (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1995), translator's note, unavailable in English. See Philippe Hamon, Introduction à l'analyse du descriptif (Paris: Hachette, 1981), translator's note, unavailable in English. Agamben (note 11), p.16. G. Deleuze and F. Guattari, Qu'est‐ce que la philosophie? (Paris: Minuit, 1991), translator's note, translated into English as What is Philosophy? (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996). Giorgio Agamben, Stanze (Paris: Payot‐Rivages, 1981), p.248, translator's note, translated into English as Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture (city: University of Minnesota Press, 1993). Agamben (note 16), p.64. It is worth mentioning here that this interpretation was proposed by Agamben himself in one of the seminars he held at the Collège International de Philosophie, but that he did not pursue it in his book. See Ziva Amishaï‐Maisels, Depiction and Interpretation: The Influence of the Holocaust on the Visual Arts (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1993). See Philippe Mesnard, La Victime écran: La représentation humanitaire en question (Paris: Textuel, 2002), translator's note, the expression victime écran translates roughly into English as 'screen victim'. Wolfgang Sofski, L'Organisation de la terreur (Paris: Calmann‐Lévy, 1995), translator's note, translated into English as The Order of Terror (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996). Agamben (note 16), p.59. Agamben (note 11), p.183. Giorgio Agamben, Moyens sans fins: Notes sur la politique (Paris: Payot‐Rivages, 1995), p.50. Harun Farocki, 'Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges (Images du monde et inscription de la guerre)', Trafic 11 (Summer 1994). Agamben (note 16), p.9, deals summarily with historical research on the very first page of Ce qui reste d'Auschwitz, by considering 'le tableau d'ensemble comme acquis'. Numerous studies on German society under Nazi rule have been published which shed very useful light on the relationship between the norm and the exception. In French, see for instance P. Ayçoberry, La Société allemande sous le IIIème Reich (Paris: Le Seuil, 1998). Jacques Rancière, La Mésentente (Paris: Galilée, 1995), p.95. Giorgio Agamben, YIVO Bleter, translated into French by Batia Baum, in 'Des voix sous la cendre: Manuscrits des Sonderkommandos d'Auschwitz‐Birkenau', Revue d'histoire de la Shoah: Le Monde juif 171 (Jan.‐April 2001), p.165. Agamben (note 16), p.105. Tadeusz Borowski, Le Monde de Pierre (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1992), p.145. Agamben (note 16), p.63. Ibid., p.206. In French, Zalmen Gradowski, Au Coeur de l'enfer: Document écrit d'un Sonderkommando d'Auschwitz – 1994, ed. Philippe Mesnard and Carlo Saletti (Paris: Kimé, 2001). L'Album d'Auschwitz, published by Serge Klarsfeld (Paris: Seuil, 1981). Gradowski describes the infamy of the lies produced by the SS. On one occasion, they chose to Jewish festival of Pourim to coincide with a mass killing of Jews in the gas chambers. See Gradowski (note 41), pp.69–72. Agamben, in order to picture for himself the reality of Auschwitz that he seeks to unveil, should have perhaps explored these lies, the structure of these lies rather than the muteness of the 'muselmann'?