Meaningless Authenticity: The Ethical Subject in Agamben's Early Works. Issue 3 (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brophy, Susan Dianne
• Is Part Of: Critical horizons. Volume 16:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 246
• Page End: 263
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: Critical theory -- Periodicals; 142.05
• DOI: 10.1179/1440991715Z.00000000050
• Languages: German
• ISSNs: 1440-9917

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>In this study of Giorgio Agamben's pre-<italic>Homo Sacer</italic> work, I assess his idea of the ethical subject. Over the course of these early writings, he adopts a Walter Benjamin-inspired redemptive aim as he endeavours to uncover the circumstances of alienated subjectivity and possibility of authentic experience. However, while Agamben borrows from Benjamin to elaborate on the ethical potential of the nihilist pose, a more Kantian conception of idealist autonomy becomes increasingly pronounced. This Kantianism is at odds with the Benjaminian nihilism that guides his redemptive prescription, leaving Agamben's ethical subject mired in a realm of meaningless authenticity.</p> </abstract>