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The hyper-hermeneutic gesture of a subtle revolution

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posted on 2023-06-08, 20:00 authored by Tom Frost
Drawing upon the thought of Giorgio Agamben, this essay focuses upon the potential of a single act to change a political order. Agamben’s writings retain the possibility for a paradigmatic gesture that opens a space for a politics not founded on a form of belonging grounded in a particular property, such as national identity. To illustrate this event this essay turns to Agamben’s construction of whatever-being, which is constructed hyper-hermeneutically. This term is chosen deliberately. Whatever-being retains a hermeneutic structure, but is constructed through singular paradigmatic examples. These examples are evidence for whatever-being’s existence as a pure singularity, unable to be reduced to a particular quality. Such examples are gestures that allow future modes of belonging to separate themselves from oppressive foundations and dominating constructions of political existence, through revealing the possibility of a new way of being that does not require a revolutionary ‘zero hour’ to be brought about.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Publisher

Ashgate Publishing

Page range

261-284

Pages

578.0

Book title

Agamben and law

Place of publication

Farnham

ISBN

9781472428844

Series

Philosophers and law

Department affiliated with

  • Law Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

Thanos Zartaloudis

Legacy Posted Date

2015-02-09

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-03-22

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