epidemics (which is just as clear an example of an undecidability between poli-
tics and biology).
It is on the basis of these uncertain and nameless terrains, these difficult zones
of indistinction, that the ways and the forms of a new politics must be thought.
At the end of the first volume of the History of Sexuality, having distanced himself from the sex and sexuality in which modernity, caught in nothing other than
a deployment of power, believed it would find its own secret and liberation,
Foucault alludes to a “different economy of bodies and pleasures” as a possible
horizon for a different politics. The conclusions of our study force us to be more
cautious. Like the concepts of sex and sexuality, the concept of the “body” too
is always already caught in a deployment of power. The “body” is always already
HOMO SACER
153
a biopolitical body and bare life, and nothing in it or the economy of its plea-
sure seems to allow us to find solid ground on which to oppose the demands of
sovereign power. In its extreme form, the biopolitical body of the West (this last
incarnation of homo sacer) appears as a threshold of absolute indistinction between law and fact, juridical rule and biological life. In the person of the Führer,
bare life passes immediately into law, just as in the person of the camp inhabitant
(or the neomort) law becomes indistinguishable from biological life. Today a law
that seeks to transform itself wholly into life is more and more confronted with
a life that has been deadened and mortified into juridical rule. Every attempt to
rethink the political space of the West must begin with the clear awareness that
we no longer know anything of the classical distinction between zoē and bios,
between private life and political existence, berween man as a simple living being
at home in the house and man’s political existence in the city. This is why the
restoration of classical political categories proposed by Leo Strauss and, in a dif-
ferent sense, by Hannah Arendt can have only a critical sense. There is no return
from the camps to classical politics. In the camps, city and house became indis-
tinguishable, and the possibility of differentiating between our biological body
and our political body—between what is incommunicable and mute and what is
communicable and sayable—was taken from us forever. And we are not only, in
Foucault’s words, animals whose life as living beings is at issue in their politics,
but also—inversely—citizens whose very politics is at issue in their natural body.
Just as the biopolitical body of the West cannot be simply given back to
its natural life in the oikos, so it cannot be overcome in a passage to a new body—a technical body or a wholly political or glorious body—in which a different economy of pleasures and vital functions would once and for all resolve
the interlacement of zoē and bios that seems to define the political destiny of the West. This biopolitical body that is bare life must itself instead be transformed
into the site for the constitution and installation of a form of life that is wholly
exhausted in bare life and a bios that is only its own zoē. Here attention will also have to be given to the analogies between politics and the epochal situation
of metaphysics. Today bios lies in zoē exactly as essence, in the Heideggerian definition of Dasein, lies ( liegt) in existence. Yet how can a bios be only its own zoē, how can a form of life seize hold of the very haplōs that constitutes both the task and the enigma of Western metaphysics? If we give the name form-of-life
to this being that is only its own bare existence and to this life that, being its
own form, remains inseparable from it, we will witness the emergence of a field
of research beyond the terrain defined by the intersection of politics and phi-
losophy, medico-biological sciences and jurisprudence. First, however, it will
154
HOMO SACER I
be necessary to examine how it was possible for something like a bare life to be
conceived within these disciplines, and how the historical development of these
very disciplines has brought them to a limit beyond which they cannot venture
without risking an unprecedented biopolitical catastrophe.
Bibliography
Translator’s note: The bibliography contains only those works cited in the text. In the case of works not originally published in English, the translations listed below were consulted; but all passages quoted in the text have been newly translated. Page references refer to works as they are first listed here.
Abel, K. Sprachwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. Leipzig: W Friedrich, 1885. ( Linguistic Essays. London: Trubner, 1882.)
Antelme, Robert. L’espèce humaine. Paris: Gallimard, 1994. ( The Human Race. Trans. Jeffrey Haight and Annie Mahler. Malboro, Vt.: Malboro Press, 1992.)
Arendt, Hannah. Essays in Understanding, 1930–1954. Ed. Jerome Kohn. New York: Harcourt & Brace, 1994.
———. On Revolution. New York: Viking, 1963.
———. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979.
Badiou, Alain. L’être et l’événement. Paris: Seuil, 1988.
Bataille, Georges. “Hegel, la mort et le sacrifice.” In Georges Bataille, Oeuvres complètes, vol. 12.
Paris: Gallimard, 1988. (“Hegel, Death, and Sacrifice.” Yale French Studies, 78 [1990].)
———. La souveraineté. In Georges Bataille, Oeuvres complètes, vol. 8. Paris: Gallimard, 1976.
Benjamin, Walter. Briefe. Ed. Gerschom Scholem and Theodor W Adorno. Vol. 1. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1966. ( The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1919–1940. Ed. Gerschom Scholem and Theodor W. Adorno. Trans. Manfred R. Jacobsen and Evelyn M. Jacobsen.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.)
———. Gesammelte Schriften. Ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schwep penhäuser. 2 vols.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1974–89.
———. “Über den Begriff der Geschichte.” In Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 1, 2. (“Theses on the Philosophy of History.” Trans. Harry Zohn. In Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed.
Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.)
———. Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels. In Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 1, 1. ( The Origin of the German Tragic Drama. Trans. John Osborne. London: Verso, 1985.)
———. “Zur Kritik der Gewalt.” In Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 2, 1. (“Critique of Violence.” Trans. Edmund Jephcott. In Walter Ben jamin, Reflections, ed. Peter Demetz. New York: Schocken Books, 1978.)
Benjamin, Walter, and Gerschom Scholem. Briefwechsel 1933–1940. Ed. Gerschom Scholem.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988. ( The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gerschom Scholem, 1932–1940. Ed. Gerschom Scholem. Trans. Gary Smith and Andre Lefevere. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.)
Bennett, H. “Sacer esto.” Transactions of the American Philological Asso ciation, 61 (1930).
Benveniste, Émile. Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-europèennes. Vol. 2. Paris: Minuit, 1969.
155
156
HOMO SACER I
( Indo-European Language and Society. Trans. Elizabeth Palmer. Coral Gables: University of Florida Press, 1973.)
Bickermann, Elias. Consecratio, Le culte des souverains dans /’empire ro main. Entretiens Hardt, XIX.
Geneva: 1972.
———. “Die römische Kaiserapotheose.” Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft, 27 (1929).
Binding, Karl, and Alfred Hoche. Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens. Leipzig:
F.
Meiner, 1920. ( The Release of the Destruction of Life Devoid of Value: Its Measure and Its Form.
Santa Ana, Calif.: R. L. Sassone, 1975.)
Blanchot, Maurice. L’entretien infini. Paris: Gallimard, 1969. ( The Infinite Conversation. Trans.
Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Min nesota Press, 1993.)
Bodin, Jean. Les six livres de la République. Paris: n.p., 1583. ( The Six Books of the Commonweale. Ed.
Kenneth D. McKae. New York: Arno, 1979.)
Burdeau, G. Traité de science politique. Vol. 4. Paris: Librarie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1984.
Cacciari, Massimo. Icone della Iegge. Milan: Adelphi, 1985.
Callois, Roger. L’homme et le sacré. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1939. ( Man and the Sacred. Trans. Meyer Barash. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1980.)
Cavalca, Desiderio. Il bando nella prassi e nella dottrina medievale. Milan: A. Giuffra, 1978.
Crifò, Giuliano. L’esclusione dalla città: Altri studi sull’exilium romano. Perugia: Università di Perugia, 1985.
———. “Exilica causa, quae adversus exulem agitur.” In Du châtiment dans la cité: Supplices corporels et peine de mort dam le monde antique. Rome: L’École française de Rome, 1984.
Dagognet, François. La maîtrise du vivant. Paris: Hachette, 1988.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. Mille plateaux. Paris: Minuit, 1980. ( A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.)
De Romilly, Jacqueline. La loi dans la pensée greque des origines à Aristote. Paris: Les belles Lettres, 1971.
Derrida, Jacques. “Force of Law.” Cardozo Law Review, II (1990).
———. “Préjugés.” In Spiegel und Gleichnis, ed. N. W Bolz and W Hübener. Würzburg: Königs-hausen und Neumann, 1983. (“Before the Law.” Trans. Avital Ronnell and Christine Roul-
ston. In Jacques Derrida, Acts of Literature, ed. Derek Attridge. London: Routledge, 1992.) Drobisch, Klaus, and Günter Wieland. System der NS-Konzentrations-lager 1933–39. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993.
Durkheim, Émile. Les formes élémentaires de la vie réligieuse. Paris: F. Al can, 1912. ( The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Trans. Karen E. Fields. New York: Free Press, 1995.)
Ehrenberg, Victor. Rechtsidee im frühen Griechentum. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1921.
Foucault, Michel. Dits et écrits. Vols. 3–4. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.
———. La volonté de savoir. Paris: Gallimard, 1976. ( History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Random House, 1978.)
Fowler, W. Ward. Roman Essays and Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1920.
Freud, Sigmund. “Über den Gegensinn der Urworte.” Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psycho-pathologische Forschungen, 11 (1910). (“The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words.” Trans.
Alan Tyson. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed.
James Strachey, vol. 11. London: Hogarth Press, 1957.)
Fugier, Huguette. Recherches sur l’expression du sacré dans la langue latine. Paris: Les belles Lettres, 1963.
Furet, François, ed. L’Allemagne nazi et le génocide juif. Paris: Seuil, 1985. ( Unanswered Questions: Nazi Germany and the Genocide of the jews. New York: Schocken, 1989.)
Gaylin, W. “Harvesting the Dead.” Harper’s, September 23, 1974.
HOMO SACER
157
Giesey, Ralph E. Cérémonial et puissance souveraine. Paris: A. Colin, 1987.
———. The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renaissance France. Geneva: E. Droz, 1960.
Harvard University Medical School. ‘’A Definition of Irreversible Coma.” JAMA, 205 (1968).
Cited in text as the Harvard Report.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Phänomenologie des Geistes. In G. W. F. Hegel, Werke in zwanzig Bänden, vol. 3. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971. ( Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans. A. V. Miller. Oxford: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1977.)
Heidegger, Martin. Beiträge zur Philosophie. In Martin Heidegger, Ge samtausgabe, vol. 65. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1989.
———. Einführung in die Metaphysik. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1962. ( An Introduction to Metaphysics. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959.)
———. Zur Sache des Denkens. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1976. ( On Time and Being. Trans.Joan Stambaugh. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.)
Hobbes, Thomas. De cive: The Latin Version. Ed. Howard Warrender. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
———. De homine. In Thomas Hobbes, Opera philosophica quae latine scripsit omnia in unum corpus, ed. William Molesworth, vol. 2. Lon don: Apud J. Bohn, 1983.
———. Leviathan. Ed. R. Tuck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Hölderlin, Friedrich. Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Friedrich Beißner. Vol. 5. Stuttgart: J. G. Cottasche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1954.
Jhering, Rodolphe. L’esprit du droit romain dans les diverses phases de son développement. Trans.
O. de Meulenaere. Vol. 1. Paris: Marescq, 1886.
Kant, Immanuel. Kants opus postuum. Ed. Adickes. Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1920. ( Opus Postuum. Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Trans. Eckhard Förster. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
———. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. In Kants Gesammelte Schriften, Akademieausgabe, vol. 5.
Berlin: G. Reimer, 1913. ( Critique of Practical Reason. Trans. Lewis White Beck. New York: Macmillan, 1993.)
———. “Über den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis.” In Kants Gesammelte Schriften, Akademieausgabe, vol. 8. Berlin: G. Reimer, 1914.
(“On the Common Saying: ‘This May Be True in Theory, but It Does Not Apply in Practice.”
In Kant, Political Writings, ed. Hans Riess, trans. N. B. Nisbet. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig. The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957.
Kerényi, Károly. La religione antica nelle sue linee fondamentali. Trans. Delio Cantimori. Bologna: N. Zanichelli, 1940.
Kojève, Alexandre. “Les romans de la sagesse.” Critique, 6o (1952).
La Cecla, Franco. Mente locale: Per un’antropologia dell’abitare. Milan: Eleuthra, 1993.
Lamb, David. Death, Brain Death, and Ethics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985.
Lange, Ludwig. “De consecratione capitis.” In Ludwig Lange, Kleine Schriften aus dem Gebiete der Classischen, vol. 2. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1887.
Lefort, Claude. Écrire à l’épreuve du politique. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1992.
Levi, Carlo. Cristo si é fermata a Eboli. Turin: Einaudi, 1946. ( Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year. Trans. Frances Frenaye. New York: Terpio, 1982.)
Levinas, Emmanuel. “Quelques réflexions sur la philosophie de l’Hit lerisme.” Esprit, 26 (1934).
———. “Reflections on the Philosophy of Hitlerism.” Trans. Séan Hand. Critical Inquiry, 17
(1990).
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. “Introduction à l’œuvre de Marcel Mauss.” In Marcel Mauss, Sociologie et anthropologie. Paris: Presses Universitaire de France, 1950.
158
HOMO SACER I
Livy. Ab urbe condita libri. Vol. 4. Trans. B. O. Forster. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1948.
Löwith, Karl. Der okkasionelle Dezionismus von Carl Schmitt. In Karl Löwith, Sämtliche Schriften,
ed. Klaus Stichweh and Marc B. de Launay, vol. 8. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1984.
Magdelain, André. La loi de Rome. Histoire d’un concept. Paris: Les belles Lettres, 1978.
Mairet, Gérard. Histoire des ideologies, sous la direction de François Châtelet and Gerard Mairet. Vol.
3. Paris: Ha
chette, 1978.
Mauss, Marcel, and H. Hubert. “Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice.” In Marcel Mauss, Œuvres, vol. 1. Paris: Gallimard, 1968.
Milner, J.-C. “L’exemple et la fiction.” In Transparence et opacité: Littérature et sciences cognitives,
ed. Tibor Papp and Pierre Pira. Paris: Cerf, 1988.
Mitscherlich, Alexander, and F. Mielke. Wissenschaft ohne Menschlichkeit. Medizinische und Euge-nische Irrwege unter Diktatur, Burokratie und Krieg. Heidelberg: Schneider, 1949. ( The Death Doctors. Trans. James Cleugh. London: Elek Books, 1962.)
Mollaret, P., and M. Goulon. “Le coma dépassé.” Revue neurologique, 101 (1959).
Mommsen, Theodor. Römisches Strafrecht. Leipzig: Duncker & Hum bolt, 1889.
Muratori, Lodovico Antonio. Antiquitates italicae Medii Aevi. Vol. 2. Milan: Mediolani, 1739.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. L’impératif catégorique. Paris: Flammarion, 1983. (“Abandoned Being.” In Jean-Luc Nancy, The Birth to Presence, trans Brian Holmes. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993.)
Negri, Antonio. Il potere costituente: Saggio sulle alternative del moderno. Milan: SugarCo, 1992.
Otto, Rudolph. Das Heilige: Über das Irrationelle in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen. Breslau: Trewendt und Granier, 1917. ( The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational. Trans. John W.
Harvey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.)
Rosenberg, Alfred. Blut und Ehre, Ein Kampf für deutsche Wiedergeburt. Reden und Aufsätze 1919–
1933. Munich: F. Eher nachf., 1936.
Schilling, Robert. “Sacrum et profanum, Essais d’interprétation.” Lato mus, 30 (1971).
Schmitt, Carl. “Führertum als Grundbegriff des nationalsozialistischen Rechts.” Europäische Revue,
9 (1933).
———. Das Nomos von der Erde. Berlin: Duncker & Humbolt, 1974.
———. Politische Theologie, Vier Kapitel zur Lehre von der Souveränität. Munich-Leipzig: Duncker
& Humbolt, 1922. ( Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Trans. George Schwab. Cam bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985.)
———. “Staat, Bewegung, Volk.” In Carl Schmitt, Die Dreigliederung der politischen Einheit.
The Omnibus Homo Sacer Page 24
