CLS 411 - Derrida/Agamben: Convergences and Disagreements

Profs. Alessia Ricciardi and Isabelle Alfandary (Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle)

Class Hours: Thursdays, 2:00-4:30 pm, U.S. Central Time
Class Zoom Link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/93277914745
Office Hours (Ricciardi): Thursdays, 5:00-6:00 pm or by appointment, U.S. Central Time
Office Hours (Ricciardi) Zoom Link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92030831201

Description:
The seminar explores key texts of two of the most important voices of so-called
poststructuralism, both of whom reframe Heidegger’s legacy in crucial but dissimilar ways
that suggest the limits of the long shadow cast by the German philosopher on contemporary
thought. Derrida and Agamben each originate or shape a distinctive field, i.e. deconstruction
and biopolitics. Each pointedly contributes to a contentious dialogue over the years, resulting
in reciprocal criticism revolving around the questions of language, law, and sovereignty. The
course highlights the divergent ethical and political implications of their respective
philosophies through readings of the following texts: Derrida, The Death Penalty, Vol. 1;
Derrida, Rogues: Two Essays on Reason; Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare
Life and The Use of Bodies; Mbembe, Necropolitics.

Format:
Seminar-style, in English.

Requirements and Evaluation:

Attendance and active participation (20%).
One oral presentation (15-20 minutes; 20%).
One short paper (3-4 pages; 20%), due on February 18.
Detailed final paper proposal with bibliography due on March 11; final paper (15-16 pages;
40%) due on March 16.

Papers and oral presentations may be developed from readings within the course or they may
treat topics/texts on the reading list in relation to texts not considered in the course or they
may consider an analogous problem using critical tools developed during the course.

Texts:
Primary readings:
Agamben, Giorgio. “Bartleby, or On Contingency.” Potentialities. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1999. (Available on Canvas.)
— . Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1998. (Please purchase.)
— . State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. (Please purchase.)
— . The Use of Bodies. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016. (Selections available
on Canvas.)
Benjamin, Water. “Critique of Violence.” Selected Writings, 1: 1913-1926. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2004. (Available on Canvas.)
Derrida, Jacques. The Death Penalty, Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.

 — . “Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority.’” Deconstruction and the

Possibility of Justice. Eds. Drucilla Cornell, Michel Rosenfeld, David Gray Carlson.
New York: Routledge, 1992. (Available on Canvas.)
— . “Literature in Secret.” The Gift of Death, 2nd Edition, and Literature in Secret.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
— . Rogues: Two Essays on Reason. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
Kafka, Franz. “Before the Law.” The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
(Available on Canvas.)
Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” Melville’s Short Novels. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2002. (Available on Canvas.)

Secondary readings:
Secondary readings include Benjamin’s “On the Concept of History,” Butler’s The Force of
Non-Violence (excerpts), selections from Foucault on biopolitics and the ethics and aesthetics
of existence, Mbembe’s “Necropolitics” chapter from Necropolitics, Schmitt’s Political
Theology (excerpts), and Weheliye’s Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics,
and Black Feminist Theories of the Human (excerpts); all are available on Canvas.

Additional recommended readings on Agamben:

Attel, Kevin. Giorgio Agamben: Beyond the Threshold of Deconstruction. New York:
Fordham University Press, 2015.
de la Durantaye, Leland. Giorgio Agamben: A Critical Introduction. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2009.
Deutscher, Penelope. “The Inversion of Exceptionality: Foucault, Agamben and
Reproductive Rights.” The Agamben Effect, The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 107, N.1
(Winter 2008).
Negri, Antonio. “Giorgio Agamben: The Discreet Taste of the Dialectics.” Sovereignty and
Life, eds. Matthew Calarco and Steven DeCaroli. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007.
Patton, Paul. “Agamben, Foucault, Biopolitics.” The Agamben Effect, The South Atlantic
Quarterly, Vol. 107, N.1 (Winter 2008).
Svirsky, Marcelo and Simone Bignall. Agamben and Colonialism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2012.

Additional recommended readings on Derrida:

Attridge, Derek. “Derrida, Deconstruction and Literary Criticism.” Reading and Responsibility:
Deconstruction's Traces. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
Derrida, Jacques. Acts of Literature. Ed. Derek Attridge. New York: Routledge, 1992
Rabaté, Jean-Michel, ed. After Derrida: Literature, Theory and Criticism in the 21st Century.
Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Schedule:
January 14
Agamben, “What is a Paradigm?”
— . Homo Sacer: “The Camp as the Nomos of the Modern”

January 21
Agamben, Homo Sacer: “Introduction,” “The Paradox of Sovereignty,” “Potentiality and
Law,” “Form of Law”

 January 28
Kafka, “Before the Law.”
Agamben, State of Exception: “The State of Exception as a Paradigm of Government,”
“Force-of-Law”
Benjamin, “Critique of Violence”

February 4
Agamben, State of Exception: “Gigantomachy Concerning a Void”
Derrida, “Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority’”

February 11
Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Agamben, The Use of Bodies: “Toward a Theory of Destituent Potential”
— . Potentialities: “Bartleby, or On Contingency”

February 18: Short Paper Due

Derrida, “La littérature au secret” (or in English “Literature in Secret”)
Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”

February 25
Derrida, The Death Penalty vol. I, Session of December 8, 1999

March 4: Final Paper Proposal with Bibliography Due

Derrida, The Death Penalty vol. I, Session of January 19, 2000

March 11: Final Paper Due

Derrida, Rogues, chapter “Teleology and Architectonic/ The Neutralization of the Event”

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