Professor Eric Santner University of Chicago Department of German Studies Tuesday August 25, 4:00 to 6:00pm. Oriental Studies Room, S204 Main Quad "The People¹s Two Bodies: Reflections on the Somatic Sublime" The working hypothesis of this lecture is that the complex symbolic structures and dynamics of sovereignty described in such erudite detail by Ernst Kantorowicz in the context of medieval and early modern European monarchies do not simply disappear from the space of politics once the body of the king is no longer available as the primary incarnation of the principle and functions of sovereignty; rather, these structures and dynamicsalong with their attendant paradoxes and impasses--³migrate² into a new location which thereby assumes a turbulent and disorienting semiotic density: the life of the people. My hunch is that a great deal about modern art, literature, and culture more generally, especially where questions concerning embodiment, non-representational artistic practice, ³vitalism,² and, finally, all matters conceived under the heading of ³biopolitics,² are at issue, can be grasped in relation to this new and internally unstable semiotic (and somatic) complexity generated by the paradoxical pressures of ³popular sovereignty.² Eric Santner is Philip and Ida Romberg Professor in Modern Germanic Studies and Chair of the Department of German Studies at the University of Chicago. His most recent book publications include The Neighbour: Three Inquiries in Political Theology (co-authored with Kenneth Reinhard and Slavoj Zizek), On Creaturely Life and The Psychotheology of Everyday Life. Professor Santner works at the intersection of literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religious thought. Professor Santner's visit is sponsored by SHAPE (the research group in Social, Historical, Aesthetic, Political and Ethical philosophy) and the Postgraduate Student Seminar in philosophy within the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry. Sponsored by SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND HISTORICAL INQUIRY SHAPE and the POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SEMINAR Department of Philosophy
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