The Hyper-Hermeneutic Gesture of a Subtle Revolution. Issue 1 (25th April 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frost, Tom
• Is Part Of: Critical horizons. Volume 14:Issue 1(2013)
• Page Start: 70
• Page End: 92
• Publication Date: 2013-04-25
• Subjects: Agamben -- Heidegger -- hermeneutics -- whatever-being; Critical theory -- Periodicals; 142.05
• DOI: 10.1179/15685160X13A.0000000004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-9917

Abstract

Abstract : Drawing upon the thought of Giorgio Agamben, this essay focuses upon the potential of a single act to change a political order. Agamben's writings retain the possibility for a paradigmatic gesture that opens a space for a politics not founded on a form of belonging grounded in a particular property, such as national identity. To illustrate this event this essay turns to Agamben's construction of whatever-being, which is constructed hyper-hermeneutically. This term is chosen deliberately. Whatever-being retains a hermeneutic structure, but is constructed through singular paradigmatic examples. These examples are evidence for whatever-being's existence as a pure singularity, unable to be reduced to a particular quality. Such examples are gestures that allow future modes of belonging to separate themselves from oppressive foundations and dominating constructions of political existence, through revealing the possibility of a new way of being that does not require a revolutionary "zero hour" to be brought about.