°rights | readings

September 18, 2006

An expanding collection of readings on rights here, as I revisit and rewrite. Of particular note is Werner Hamacher’s “The Right not to Use Rights,” available as a pdf - but not sure for how long. Likewise, Spivak’s “Righting Wrongs.”

And, only distantly related, a rather peculiar review of Holloway’s Change the World Without Taking Power by Negri. Peculiar understanding of sovereignty, that is (the Foucault he claims to understand would be shuddering in his grave) - among other things.

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6 Comments »

  1. I’m not sure I can even decipher his point on sovereignty! As far as I know, all theoretical traditions recognize that sovereignty is “one” - although the meaning of that unity or “one-ness” is greatly disputed. The version of Foucault presented is a little strange, for sure. But Negri’s Foucault in this review isn’t any worse than the biopolitical Foucault in Empire.

    Craig [September 19, 2006 @ 12:45 pm]

  2. The only “duality” I can think of is that described by Kantorowicz - but that’s hardly akin to the “duality” between ‘movements’ and ‘governance’ that Negri offers, and so as to redeem the ‘true, Leninist’ Gramsci … etc. Actually, I think this might just be worse than Empire, something quite beyond the inversion of Foucault’s understanding of biopolitics.

    s0metim3s [September 19, 2006 @ 1:57 pm]

  3. Even Kantorowicz - at least in my understanding, and I’m not a medievalist - doesn’t present a duality, but, rather, the mechanism through which sovereignty manages to exist beyond the death of sovereign. That the death of the sovereign, insofar as the sovereign constitutes sovereignty and the body politic in his own body, presents a problem of succession isn’t to say that there is a duality! Sovereignty remains “one” throughout.

    Craig [September 19, 2006 @ 3:28 pm]

  4. Well, yes, I was being sarcastic, hence the scare quotes … It’s difficult to take Negri’s pissy tone seriously.

    s0metim3s [September 19, 2006 @ 3:43 pm]

  5. I came across a reference to a Polish tradition of electing “anti-kings” this evening. Maybe that’s what he meant!

    Craig [September 19, 2006 @ 3:46 pm]

  6. … or Bakhtin’s carnival as an instance of constituent power, maybe. One can only but speculate …

    s0metim3s [September 19, 2006 @ 3:56 pm]

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