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Reinterpreting (bio)Politics: Potentiality, Profanation, and Play in the Thought of Giorgio Agamben

Brenn, Matt A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1382125057

Abstract Details

2013, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Comparative Studies.
In light of the global Occupy movements, whose ostensible lack of demands or a program of transformation have been praised for opening up new movements of radical political thought, this thesis examines the conceptual relationship between potentiality, profanation, and play in the thought of Giorgio Agamben in an attempt to contribute to what it means to think emancipatory politics within the contemporary biopolitical horizon. The argument suggests that Agamben’s formulations of potentiality, profanation, and play reformulate precisely what it means to speak of a politics premised upon a genuine lack of program or demands today. In order to explicate this argument, the thesis considers potentiality, profanation, and play in concentric relation to each other, where each concept revolves around Agamben’s resistance to an originary biopolitical structure, which he views as undergirding the entire legacy of Western thought. The argument suggests that these circles move from a broad ontological notion of potentiality to the praxis of play, where profanation serves as the conceptual circle mediating between the two. Accordingly, the thesis is divided into four sections. In the first section, the argument works to explicate Agamben’s notion of the originary structure of biopolitics. In the second section, the argument turns to examine potentiality, which serves as Agamben’s broadest ontological response to this biopolitical structure. The argument then turns toward Agamben’s concept of profanation. In this section, the argument works to emphasize Agamben’s critique of consumption in relation to his conceptualization of profanation. In the final section, the argument considers Agamben’s notion of play, understood as a social praxis informed by the interrelated concepts of potentiality and profanation.
Philip Armstrong (Advisor)
Shannon Winnubst (Committee Member)
Thomas Davis (Committee Member)
58 p.
Comparative; Philosophy
Agamben; biopolitics; spectacle; play

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brenn, M. A. (2013). Reinterpreting (bio)Politics: Potentiality, Profanation, and Play in the Thought of Giorgio Agamben [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1382125057

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brenn, Matt. Reinterpreting (bio)Politics: Potentiality, Profanation, and Play in the Thought of Giorgio Agamben. 2013. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1382125057.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brenn, Matt. "Reinterpreting (bio)Politics: Potentiality, Profanation, and Play in the Thought of Giorgio Agamben." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1382125057

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.