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PHILOSOPHY INTERRUPTED

PHILOSOPHY INTERRUPTED Abstract The Unspeakable Girl is more important for Agamben’s thought than its short length, antiquarianism, and belletristic format suggest. In discussing ancient initiation rites through an analysis of the figure of the Kore – the unspeakable girl – it suggests how we might conceive of initiation into form-of-life, thus addressing a pressing question that emerges from Agamben’s Homo Sacer project: if Agamben’s thought aims at the demystification of philosophy, yet mystery is the essence of philosophical initiation as traditionally conceived and philosophy needs some kind of initiation, how could one conceive of an initiation into that which is without mystery – into the profane. Yet by insisting on an opposition between “authentic” interior gestures and their vulgar betrayal, Agamben undermines his own most radical insight. Such a distinction can never be drawn, and hence a different kind of initiation must be envisioned: not into the critical spectatorship of the dance, but into the dance itself. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities Taylor & Francis

PHILOSOPHY INTERRUPTED

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PHILOSOPHY INTERRUPTED

Abstract

Abstract The Unspeakable Girl is more important for Agamben’s thought than its short length, antiquarianism, and belletristic format suggest. In discussing ancient initiation rites through an analysis of the figure of the Kore – the unspeakable girl – it suggests how we might conceive of initiation into form-of-life, thus addressing a pressing question that emerges from Agamben’s Homo Sacer project: if Agamben’s thought aims at the demystification of philosophy,...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN
1469-2899
eISSN
0969-725X
DOI
10.1080/0969725X.2020.1807133
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract The Unspeakable Girl is more important for Agamben’s thought than its short length, antiquarianism, and belletristic format suggest. In discussing ancient initiation rites through an analysis of the figure of the Kore – the unspeakable girl – it suggests how we might conceive of initiation into form-of-life, thus addressing a pressing question that emerges from Agamben’s Homo Sacer project: if Agamben’s thought aims at the demystification of philosophy, yet mystery is the essence of philosophical initiation as traditionally conceived and philosophy needs some kind of initiation, how could one conceive of an initiation into that which is without mystery – into the profane. Yet by insisting on an opposition between “authentic” interior gestures and their vulgar betrayal, Agamben undermines his own most radical insight. Such a distinction can never be drawn, and hence a different kind of initiation must be envisioned: not into the critical spectatorship of the dance, but into the dance itself.

Journal

Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities – Taylor & Francis

Published: Sep 2, 2020

Keywords: dance; silence; Nymphs; Aby Warburg; Carl Jung; Károly Kerényi

References

  • Image and Silence
  • The Emergence of the Paedophile in the Late Twentieth Century
  • Initiating Life: Agamben and the Political Use of Intimacy
  • The Girl with the Open Mouth
  • Women’s Silence as a Ritual of Truth: A Study of Literary Expressions in Austen, Brontë, and Woolf
  • Book Production and its Regulation during the German Occupation of the Netherlands
  • Silence and Reason: Woman’s Voice in Philosophy
  • Symposium