Catastrophe and Redemption

Jessica Whyte is Lecturer in Cultural and Social Analysis at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. She is the coeditor (with Alex Murray) of The Agamben Dictionary.

"Scholars of Agamben have long pondered about the coming community, and laboured to defend their Agambenian inspired work against accusations of negativity and esotericism. Now, thanks to Jessica Whyte … that task will become a little easier." — ephemera"One of the book's strengths is to reveal the essential bond between sovereign power and political, social, and cultural identities … [a] fascinating book." — Comparative and Continental Philosophy"…Catastrophe and Redemption offers a good critical overview of Agamben's work." — Contemporary Political Theory"…successfully break[s] through the crust of an interpretative machine around Agamben that has grown torpid by repetition … Whyte's reading of Agamben is nuanced, and her attention to the dynamics of capitalism and the history of political struggle provide an important corrective to some of his philosophical tendencies, without jettisoning insights." — Law and Critique"…Whyte identifies key questions which will need to be asked in order to transform this world. Such questions relate to challenging inequality, challenging capitalism's colonialism of the future, and creating new forms of solidarity. To address these issues, Whyte draws us to her conclusion that it is not enough to accede to teleological formations of capitalism. We must begin to develop ways to contest it. This slim volume can be seen as such a call to arms." — Symposium

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: On Catastrophe and RedemptionKatechon, Antichrist, MessiahFlowers and ChainsChapter Outline1. The Politics of LifeAgamben and Foucault: On Biopolitics, Ancient and ModernBiopolitics and SovereigntyBiopolitical BeingThe Rights of Bare LifeHoping Merely Out of Stupidity2. Politics at the Limits of the Law: On the State of ExceptionThe State of ExceptionCarl Schmitt: The Paradox of SovereigntyPresupposition and the Problem of ApplicationThe State of "Nature"Challenging the Normalization of the Exception?3. If This Is a Man: Life after AuschwitzThe Remnant Shall Be SavedThe DangerWhere Danger Is, Grows the Saving Power Also4. "I Would Prefer Not To": Bartleby, Messianism, and the Potentiality of the LawThe Law Is a Dry CanalAristotle and the Origins of SovereigntyPast ContingentBartleby as Messiah?5. A New Use: On Society of the Spectacle and the Coming PoliticsPaying Pilgrimage to the Commodity FetishThe Eclipse of Use and the "Dialectical Salvation of the Commodity"A New Use for the Self: The Global Petty Bourgeoisie and the Coming CommunityWe Are Saved When We No Longer Want to BeConclusion: Unemployment and the UngovernableNotesBibliographyIndex