abstract 12 final

7/21/2019 Abstract 12 Final

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Vandana Sharma

Dr. Sharanpal Singh

Agamben’s Theorization of Literature and the Select Works

of Herman Melville and Franz Kafka

A !ritical Stud"

Statement of #ur$ose

The proposed research project for the purpose of doctoral dissertation aims to study the

literary and theoretical stakes of the selected writings of the Italian philosopher Giorgio

Agamben b.!"#$%& who has gathered acclaim in recent years for his approach to language&

literature and metaphysics. The central concern will be to identify how the application of his

ideas and concepts can be a pertinent way to the insightful analysis of literature in general and

the select writings of 'erman (el)ille !*!"+!*"!% and ,ran- afka !**/+!"$#% in particular .

This will be attempted in relation to major literary and theoretical influences on Agamben& i.e.

the influences of the ideas of (artin 'eidegger& 0alter 1enjamin& (ichel ,oucault and 2ac3ues

Derrida. (el)ille4s four select works Clarel !*56%& Battle Pieces and Aspects of War !*66%&

71enito 8ereno9 !*::% and 71artleby& the Scri)ener; A Story of 0all Street9 !*:/% will be

re)isited in the light of Agamben4s ideas concerning literature. The list of afka4s select literary

works will include Amerika !"$5%& The Castle !"$6%& The Trial !"$:% and The Metamorphosis!"!:%.

Agamben first elaborately alluded to literature in The Man without Content !"5<% which

is a criti3ue of modern literature and the )isual arts. Then he went on to discuss literature in

Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture !"55%& Language and eath: The Place of

!egati"it# !"*$%& The $dea of Prose !"*:%& The %nd of the Poem: Studies in Poetics !""6%&

and Potentialities: Collected %ssa#s in Philosoph# !"""%. These select si= works constitute a

third of his total published output and by far the most unrelenting engagement with literature by

any contemporary philosopher. (ajority of Agamben4s other philosophical works also draw

hea)ily upon keen readings of literary te=ts. These essentials raise a firm rationale to attempt a

full+length study of Agamben4s insights and their application to literature in general and select

literary te=ts of (el)ille and afka.



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Agamben criti3ues a large number of earlier writers; from >lato& 0alter 1enjamin& afka to

8harles 1audelaire in his foremost work The Man without Content !"5<%. 'e continues his

analysis of poetic language in his ne=t work Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture

!"55%. Agamben writes on issues of space of negati)ity and the relation between 7death and

language9 central to literary theory and deconstruction in Language and eath: The Place of

!egati"it# !"*$%. In 'egel4s poem 7?leusis&9 Agamben obser)es the content of ?leusinian

mystery which is the e=perience of 7the negati)ity that is always inherent in any meaning9

Language and eath !/%.

Agamben4s thought seeks a new form& a new @prose@ in his ne=t work The $dea of Prose

!"*:%. earticulating the relationships between prose and poetry& Agamben attempts to rethink

the nature of poetic language in a tradition of literature initiated by Dante Alighieri in his The

%nd of the Poem: Studies in Poetics !""6%. 'e posits; 7poetry li)es only in the tension and

differenceBbetween sound and sense& between the semiotic sphere and the semantic sphereB9

The %nd of the Poem !<"%. In his ne=t collection Potentialities: Collected %ssa#s in Philosoph#

!"""%& Agamben4s e=tensi)e essay on 'erman (el)ille4s short story 71artleby& the Scri)ener9

puts potentiality and actuality in an altogether new light.

The increasing recognition accorded to Agamben4s oeu)re has resulted in the beginning

of a serious discussion of the literary aspects of his work. 'e pursues 3uestions in e)ery

dimension of human e=istence and his ideas can also be aptly applied in better understanding of

literature which reflects deeply on the human condition and socio political effects. Agamben has

himself proclaimed; 7I could state the subject of my work as an attempt to understand the

meaning of the )erb Ccan4 potereE. 0hat do I mean when I say; CI can& cannot4F9

Potentialities!55%.

In 'erman (el)ille4s short story 71artleby& the Scri)ener9 Agamben points to 1artleby

as a hopeful figure of pure potentiality because he 7e=ceeds will his own and that of others% at

e)ery point9 and is truly able 7neither to posit nor to negate9 Potentialities $::+$:5%. 1y

becoming a scri)ener who does not write& 1artleby preser)es his potentiality in its purest form.According to Agamben& the concept of potentiality has ne)er 7ceased to function in the life and

history of humanity& most notably in that part of humanity that has grown and de)eloped its

potency potenzaE to the point of imposing its power o)er the whole planet9 Potentialities&'' %.

In literature this idea of potentiality can help in e=ploration of human psychology and especially

in seeing how good can turn into e)il in unpredictable ways. ,or Agamben& if potentiality is



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simply the ability to actuali-e& to con)ert potentiality into action& then impotentiality signifies the

ability to not actuali-e& or to not con)ert potentiality into action. In afka4s The Trial& the

protagonist 2oseph . appears as a perfect paradigm of this 7impotentiality9 which is basically

imposed upon him by the )icious system of law and society.

To arri)e at a precise idea of this potentiality& it also becomes imperati)e to study other

important ideas within Agamben4s thought& )idelicet& inoperati)eness& decreation& profanity&

alienation and play. Agamben uses 1artleby4s stance 7I prefer not to&9 that becomes gradually a

refrain as the perfect paradigm of the inoperati)e which is 7the other side of potentiality; the

possibility that a thing might not come to pass9 Critical $ntroduction !"%. In Arthur (iller4s

eath of a Salesman !"56% 1iff4s ego+crushing rejection illustrates this idea of Cinoperati)eness4

in an effecti)e way. 1artleby& in neither affirming nor negating the re3uests of his employer&

remo)es himself from the constraints of reason and society and becomes the most forceful )iew

of CInoperati)eness&4 which represents something& 7not e=hausted but ine=haustible because it

does not pass from the possible to the actual9 Critical $ntroduction !"%.

Agamben defines Cdecreation4 in the final section of @1artleby& or n 8ontingency&@

entitled @The ?=periment& or n Decreation@ as a second 7creation in which God summons all

his potential not to be& creating on the basis of a point of indifference between potentiality and

impotentiality... Potentialities $5<% ,or Agamben& the e=periments without truth concern not

7the actual e=istence or none=istence of a thing but e=clusi)ely its potentiality9 Potentialities

$6<+6!%. According to him& poetry and thinking conduct such e=periments which& 7do not simply

concern the truth or falsity of hypothesesB rather& they call into 3uestion 1eing itself9

Potentialities $6<%. (el)ille probes this 3uestion of C1eing4 for almost all his protagonists like

Ahab& 1illy 1udd& >ierre& Huku 'i)a& 1enito 8ereno and 1artleby to name a few. 'is main

concern lies in finding what it means for something @to be@ in a world of moral limits and

obligations.

In Profanations& Agamben defines profane as 7the term for something that was once

sacred or religious and is returned to the use and property of men9 Profanations 5/%. This can bereadily instanced from (el)ille4s concept of 7taboo kanaker9 as presented by him in his

inaugural te=t T#pee: A Peep at Pol#nesian Life !*#6% and its se3uel (moo: A !arrati"e of

Ad"entures in the South Seas !*#5%. In T#pee& the protagonist Tommo remains mystified by the

Typee system of taboo and in (moo) (el)ille disparages the effort to ci)ili-e and christiani-e the



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nati)es because it leads to destruction of >olynesian traditions and culture and brings hypocrisy&

ignorance and hatred of other faiths among nati)es.

8entral to understanding Cprofanation4 in Agamben4s thought is an understanding of the

way he reformulates the concept of alienation. 'e looks to re)i)e the conceptual power of the

alienating features 7inherent to the fetish9 Means without %nd 56%. In afka4s The

Metamorphosis) the alienation caused by Gregor4s metamorphosis can be )iewed as an e=tension

of the alienation he already felt as a person and makes him literally and emotionally separate not

only from his family members but also from humanity in general. Similarly the protagonists of

Waiting for *odot & seems to be )oid of meaning and e)okes a feeling of alienation&

incompleteness and depression. According to Agamben;

ike the castle in afkaJs no)el& which burdens the )illage with the obscurity of its

decrees and the multiplicity of its offices& the accumulated culture has lost its li)ing

meaning and hangs o)er man like a threat in which he can in no way recogni-e himself.

The Man without Content 66+65%

,or Agamben ritual 7fi=es and structures the calendarK play on the other handBchanges

and destroys it9 $nfanc# and +istor# 6"%. In this way play deacti)ates the power inherent in the

sacred residues that characterise law& economics or politics. Agamben highlights play again as

central to the deacti)ation of power; 7one day humanity will play with law just as children play

with disused objects& not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it

for good9 State of %,ception 6#%. This relationship between playful and the sacred& Agamben

contends& is still with us today in modern society. In (el)ille4s Benito Cereno the problem of

human sa)agery and its specific manifestation in the institution of sla)ery basically points out the

deacti)ation of power inherent in sacred institutions of law and justice.

There remains no doubt that Agamben4s reasoned pursuit of fundamental truths and

systematic study of issues not only seeks to pro)ide rational methods of resol)ing conflicts by

establishing standards of e)idence but also creates no)el techni3ues for e)aluating ideas and

arguments concerning literature& morality& religion& science& and humanities in general. Theapplication of Agamben4s ideas in understanding the select works of (el)ille and afka can lead

to rewarding insights. Thus the proposed project will pa)e way for contribution to research

through comprehension of not only Agamben4s acumen as a literary theoretician& but also add to

our understanding of poetics& literature and contemporary culture through a study of his prolific

writings and select literary te=ts of (el)ille and afka.



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#%&MA%' S()%!*S

+i, -iorgio Agamben

Agamben& Giorgio. The Man without Content . Trans. Georgia Albert. Stanford& 8alif.; Stanford

Lni)ersity >ress& !""". >rint.

+++. Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture. Trans. onald . (artine-. (inneapolis;

Lni)ersity of (innesota >ress& !""/. >rint.

+++. Language and eath: The Place of !egati"it#. Trans. aren ?. >inkus and (ichael 'ardt.

(inneapolis; Lni)ersity of (innesota >ress& !""!. >rint.

+++. The $dea of Prose. Trans. (ichael Sulli)an and Sam 0hitsitt. Albany; State Lni)ersity of

Hew Mork >ress& !"":. >rint.

+++. The %nd of the Poem: Studies in Poetics. Trans. Daniel 'eller+oa-en. Stanford& 8alif.;

Stanford Lni)ersity >ress& !""". >rint.

+++. Potentialities: Collected %ssa#s in Philosoph#. ?d. and trans. Daniel 'eller+oa-en.

Stanford& 8alif.; Stanford Lni)ersity >ress& !""". >rint.

+ii, Franz Kafka. Herman Melville

afka& ,ran-. The Metamorphosis- Hew Mork; Do)er >ublications& $<<<. >rint.

+++. The Trial- Hew Mork; 8reateSpace Independent >ublishing >latform& $<!!. >rint.

+++. The Castle. Trans. ondon; 0ordsworth ?ditions td& $<<". >rint.

+++. Amerika. Trans. 8harles Singleton. >rinceton; H.2.; >rinceton Lni)ersity >ress& !"5<. >rint.

(el)ille& 'erman. @1artleby the Scri)ener.@ Bill# Budd Sailor and (ther Stories. ?d. 'arold

1ea)er. ondon; >enguin 1ooks& !"*:. >rint.

+++. Benito Cereno. Hew Mork; Do)er >ublications& !""<. >rint.

+++. Battle Pieces and Aspects of War . Hew Mork; 'arper N 1rothers& !"66. >rint.

+++. Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the +ol# Land . Illinois; Horthwestern Lni)ersity >ress&

$<<*. >rint.



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