Topology of Sovereignty, or the Politics of Analogy: A Note on Giorgio Agamben's <i>Homo Sacer</i>

WANG Qin

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WANG Qin. Topology of Sovereignty, or the Politics of Analogy: A Note on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2018, 1(2): 216-233.

Citation:

WANG Qin. Topology of Sovereignty, or the Politics of Analogy: A Note on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2018, 1(2): 216-233.

WANG Qin. Topology of Sovereignty, or the Politics of Analogy: A Note on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2018, 1(2): 216-233.

Citation:

WANG Qin. Topology of Sovereignty, or the Politics of Analogy: A Note on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2018, 1(2): 216-233.

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Topology of Sovereignty, or the Politics of Analogy: A Note on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer

WANG Qin

Peking University

Received Date: 2017-11-18
Rev Recd Date: 2018-03-23

Abstract

Abstract

Through rereading Giorgio Agamben's productive development and reinterpretation of Carl Schmitt's arguments on sovereignty, this essay argues that in Homo Sacer Agamben employs a topology of sovereignty, as a space of indistinction between inside and outside, a space into which the sovereign's concreteness is dissolved. This idiosyncratic topological space of sovereignty, however, hinges upon Agamben's rhetorical use of analogies. Through introducing and rereading a medieval literary text, Mary de France's Bisclavret, the essay shows the extent to which the logic of analogy could be resisted and the topological space reopened for personal action.
- Giorgio Agamben,
- Homo Sacer,
- Bisclavret,
- Sovereignty,
- Analogy

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References(14)

References

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