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FROM VOICE TO INFANCY giorgio agamben on the existence of language

FROM VOICE TO INFANCY giorgio agamben on the existence of language AbstractThe main concern of Agamben's work, prior to the Homo Sacer project, is how to understand the existence of or potentiality for language. Contemporary philosophy casts language as the unsayable presupposition of discourse. Agamben criticises this as an incomplete nihilism that remains within the horizon of metaphysics, and attempts to think the experience of language without an unsayable ground. I examine Agamben's critique of the role of the ineffable in the theory of the subject, and in the thought of Heidegger and Derrida. I contrast this with his account of infancy as an experience that fully assumes the groundlessness of language. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities Taylor & Francis

FROM VOICE TO INFANCY giorgio agamben on the existence of language

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FROM VOICE TO INFANCY giorgio agamben on the existence of language

Abstract

AbstractThe main concern of Agamben's work, prior to the Homo Sacer project, is how to understand the existence of or potentiality for language. Contemporary philosophy casts language as the unsayable presupposition of discourse. Agamben criticises this as an incomplete nihilism that remains within the horizon of metaphysics, and attempts to think the experience of language without an unsayable ground. I examine Agamben's critique of the role of the ineffable in the theory of the...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
ISSN
1469-2899
eISSN
0969-725X
DOI
10.1080/0969725X.2013.869017
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThe main concern of Agamben's work, prior to the Homo Sacer project, is how to understand the existence of or potentiality for language. Contemporary philosophy casts language as the unsayable presupposition of discourse. Agamben criticises this as an incomplete nihilism that remains within the horizon of metaphysics, and attempts to think the experience of language without an unsayable ground. I examine Agamben's critique of the role of the ineffable in the theory of the subject, and in the thought of Heidegger and Derrida. I contrast this with his account of infancy as an experience that fully assumes the groundlessness of language.

Journal

Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities – Taylor & Francis

Published: Dec 1, 2013

Keywords: Agamben; Derrida; Heidegger; language; infancy; potentiality

References

  • Agamben's Potential
  • Letter on Humanism
  • The Politics of Caesura: Giorgio Agamben on Language and the Law
  • The Sacred and the Unspeakable: Giorgio Agamben's Ontological Politics
  • ‘I am sure you are more pessimistic than I am’: An Interview with Giorgio Agamben