
Agamben and the Politics of Human Rights
Statelessness, Images, Violence
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 23. May 2013
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-0-7486-4572-5 (ISBN)
Description
Human rights are in crisis today. Everywhere one looks, there is violence, deprivation, and oppression, which human rights norms seem powerless to prevent. This book investigates the roots of the current crisis through the thought of Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben. Human rights theory and practice must come to grips with key problems identified by Agamben - the violence of the sovereign state of exception and the reduction of humanity to 'bare' life. Any renewal of human rights today must involve breaking decisively with the traditional coordinates of Western political thought and instead affirm a new understanding of life and political action.
Reviews / Votes
Lechte and Newman do what has terrified many of us: they speak of transcendence and life together. Moving brilliantly across the contemporary terrain of human rights and biopolitics, the authors explore how language, gesture, and image allow us to approach life without the zoe?/bios distinction holding sway. This is a courageous book that opens up new perspectives not only on Agamben but also on forms of current and future life. * Timothy Campbell, Professor of Italian Studies and Chair of Romance Studies, Cornell University *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
4 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-4572-5 (9780748645725)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2013
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Persons
John Lechte is Emeritus Professor in Sociology at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is best know for his writing on French philosophers, Julia Kristeva and Georges Bataille and for his best selling Key Contemporary Thinkers (Routledge, 2006). He is co-editor of Agamben and the Politics of Human Rights: Statelessness, Images, Violence (EUP, 2015) and The Kristeva Critical Reader (EUP, 2003). His most recent book is The Human (Bloomsbury, 2020). Saul Newman is Professor in Political Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research is in continental and poststructuralist political and social theory, and contemporary radical politics. He is the author of: From Bakunin to Lacan (2001); Power and Politics in Poststructuralist Thought (2005); Unstable Universalities (2007); Politics Most Unusual (2008); The Politics of Postanarchism (2010); and Max Stirner (2011).
Author
Emeritus ProfessorMacquarie University
ProfessorGoldsmiths, University of London
Content
Preface; 1. Human Rights and Statelessness Today; 2. Human Rights in History; 3. Agamben and the Rise of 'Bare Life'; 4. Language, the Human and Bare Life: from Ungroundedness to Inoperativity; 5. Nihilism or Politics? An Interrogation of Agamben; 6. Politics, Power and Violence in Agamben; 7. Agamben, the Image and the Human; 8. Living Human Rights; Bibliography.