Claiming Humanity: A Black Critique of the Concept of Bare Life
<p>This conversation with Alexander Weheliye is built upon the critique he made of the work of Giorgio Agamben, in particular in his essentialization of the <em>muselmann</em> in the context of the Holocaust. Alexander argues that slavery functions as a better paradigm to understand the “layering” of bare lives and the racial aspects that this understanding involves. He explains how he is interested in finding other ways to “claim humanity” than the traditional judicial one that attributes this status in a retroactive manner to suffering bodies. In order to do so, we evoke the works of major African-American and black Caribbean thinkers such as Hortense Spillers, Sylvia Wynter, Édouard Glissant, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, C.L.R. James, etc. We spend the last ten minutes of the conversation talking about Alexander’s work about the relationship between black music and technology.</p>
Host: Léopold Lambert
Guests: Alexander Ghedi Weheliye
Part of: The Funambulist Podcast