°Impolitical
Brett has posted a reading of Esposito’s Categorie dell’ impolitico (The Categories of the Impolitical):
[…] For Esposito, it is crucial to distinguish the impolitical from the apolitical. While the latter determines the political negatively, sitting outside or beyond it, the former is coextensive with politics and, indeed, limns it.
This means the impolitical cannot be identified with the processes of depoliticisation that characterise secular modernity. In Römischer Katholizismus und politische Form, Schmitt complains that modern politics has become merely a matter of technics. And he seeks to restore authority to politics by submitting it to a kind of theological transvaluation. Noting the affinities of Schmitt’s argument with that of theologian Romano Guardini, Esposito contends that this depoliticisation and theologisation are two sides of the one coin. The more the modern state cedes its sovereign power to technics and economic forces, the more it clings to the theological supplement that animates its claims to autonomy. The impolitical is the category that exposes this secret complicity. ‘It does not oppose value to politics’ Espositio explains. ‘But does exactly the opposite. It refuses the attribution of value to politics or its theological valorisation’. […]
Go read the rest. While some other of Esposito’s books are in the process of being translated - Bios is out soon, Stanford has been sitting on Communitas, and the upcoming edition of Diacritics is on Esposito - I’ve not yet heard of any plans to translate The Categories of the Impolitical.
Which is a shame - not least because the impolitical is a more interesting and fruitful way to enter what is at stake here than do some of the other concepts that seek to do similar kinds of work, such as ‘passive politics’ (Agamben), ‘post-politics,’ and so forth. I’m also thinking through how the impolitical might be read up around Nancy’s (rather unwieldy) concepts of the theologicopolitical and juridico-commercial, and into a discussion of rights, recognition and autonomy.
Thanks for this.
Nate [October 16, 2006 @ 2:46 pm]
Hey Nate,
you might also want to check out Tim Campbell’s essay, link below.
s0metim3s [October 16, 2006 @ 2:48 pm]
Thanks a lot Angela, I saw this just as I’ve been thinking again around that early quote from Esposito in Balibar (and wanting to read more of him)
there’s a problem with downloading Tim Campbell’s essay though. Do you think it can be fixed?
cheers,
pom
pomagrenade [October 23, 2006 @ 11:23 am]
Tim put the essay up for a seminar series, if I recall right. So, I guess the seminar is over - but I suspect it’ll appear in some form in the upcoming Diacritics edition.
In the meantime, I’ve been experimenting with allpeers on firefox for sharing files (rather than uploading entire essays here) - so, if you use firefox … Or, I’ll email you.
s0metim3s [October 23, 2006 @ 2:52 pm]