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The Bio-Theo-Politics of birth

Chiesa, Lorenzo (2011) The Bio-Theo-Politics of birth. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 16 (3). pp. 101-115. ISSN 0969-725X. (doi:10.1080/0969725X.2011.621224) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:30219)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2011.621224

Abstract

In this article I aim to show that, in their discussion of the possible biopolitical implications of the notion of birth, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Roberto Esposito share a similar vitalist notion of life. Both authors start off from the very same premise: before and outside of any symbolic (political and legal) constraining imposition on life, life is in itself a life as a unity of difference – a place of blind forces or a primordial intensity – that is as such sacredly blessed. On the one hand, Esposito’s analysis of birth as an affirmative biopolitical category can help us unveil the thanatopolitical implications of Pasolini’s critique of Italian legislation on abortion in so far as he resolutely condemns any discourse on the alleged degeneration of life. On the other, this very analysis is compromised by Esposito’s own Christian stance on life. In the final part of this paper, I argue that inasmuch as Esposito conceives birth as “the actual place in which a life makes itself two,” such a blessed One of difference presupposes a stance on the transcendent differentiality of life and legal obligation towards it that follows closely John Paul II’s encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/0969725X.2011.621224
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN80 Criticism
P Language and Literature > PQ Romance Literature > PQ4001 Italian Literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Fiona Symes
Date Deposited: 20 Aug 2012 13:21 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:08 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30219 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Chiesa, Lorenzo.

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