Agamben. Naked Life and Nudity

Bidragets oversatte titel: Agamben. Det nøgne liv og nøgenhed

Lars Östman

Abstract

The Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben has achieved large international recognition since his first book in the homo sacer-project, Homo sacer. Il potere sovrano e la nuda vita, was published in 1995. The project's basic aim is to try and understand the fundamental relation between man and power, politics and theology, which Agamben gives the name biopolitics. Such a politics, Agamben writes in the introduction, is the very fundamental element of Western metaphysics, "because it occupies the threshold in which the articulation between the living and logos is accomplished."! With relentless stringency scholars and researchers have analysed Agamben's perhaps most famous concept, naked life, and related it to the history of religion, philosophy of law etc. The philosopher himself never thought that his term naked life would achieve such fame, as he said at a small conference at Iuav.2 However, what has been given less attention, if any, is the most obvious part in that concept: Nudity. This holds the key, nonetheless, to understand Agamben's thinking, because nudity is that very threshold holding together, as well as separating, life and logos, man and animal. Per haps this is one of the reasons, if not needs, for Agamben writing a book with the telling title: Nudita. Centre in the present article is to discuss Agamben's concept of nudity alongside that of naked life in thematizing the term shame which is central in this regard.3 Furthermore, the attempt to argue in favour of a conceptual use of the metaphor-naked life-shall also be unfolded.

Bidragets oversatte titelAgamben. Det nøgne liv og nøgenhed
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftDanish Yearbook of Philosophy
Vol/bind45 (2010)
Sider (fra-til)71-88
Antal sider18
ISSN0070-2749
StatusUdgivet - 2012

Emneord

  • Det Humanistiske Fakultet
  • Det nøgne liv
  • Skammen
  • Auschwitz
  • Biopolitik
  • Erindring
  • Giorgio Agamben
  • Primo Levi

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