Ep. 49 – Eric L. Santner on Sovereignty, Flesh, and Biopolitics

Explicit content warning

06/13/17 • -1 min

Always Already Podcast, a critical theory podcast

Join B, John, and Emily for a patron-suggested discussion of Eric L. Santner‘s book The Royal Remains: The People’s Two Bodies and the Endgames of Sovereignty. The conversation explores the book’s use of the terms sovereignty and flesh as we attempt to parse out its central aims and contributions. How do those concepts relate to biopolitics? What are the multiple uses of ‘flesh’? Is psychoanalysis a useful paradigm in which to think through sovereignty and modernity? We also attempt to put Santner in conversation with thinkers like Franz Fanon and Hortense Spillers, and wonder to what extent we ourselves have been guilty of a paranoid reading of the text.

The episode concludes with an advice question regarding some of the concerns that arise when deciding whether and how to continue on with higher education.

Thanks to Dana Logan (@popapologist) who requested this episode, and due to their support of us on Patron, got the request to the top of the queue! Support us on Patreon to help us upgrade our recording equipment. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. RSS feed here. Thanks to Leah Dion for the intro music, to B for the outro music, and to Bad Infinity for the music between segments. Get the mp3 of the episode here.

https://alwaysalreadypodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/santner.mp3

Links:

The Royal Remains at University of Chicago Press
Review forum for The Royal Remains in the Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory
Hortense Spillers’ Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: Am American Grammar Book

The episode concludes with an advice question regarding some of the concerns that arise when deciding whether and how to continue on with higher education.

https://alwaysalreadypodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/santner.mp3

Links:

The Royal Remains at University of Chicago Press
Review forum for The Royal Remains in the Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory
Hortense Spillers’ Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: Am American Grammar Book

Previous Episode

Interview: Mark Padoongpatt on neoliberalism and the (under)commons – Epistemic Unruliness 20

In this episode James is joined by Dr. Mark Padoongpatt, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies at University of Nevada Las Vegas. Dr. Padoongpatt discusses his involvement with the Fuck Neoliberalism Symposium held in April at the University of California, Merced. The pair unpack the term neoliberalism by pointing out its logic and highlighting how it has reshaped the landscape of university and the public square. The conversation concludes with thinking through how we might reclaim the commons as well as launch a politics of fugitivity from the undercommons.

Support us on Patreon to help us upgrade our recording equipment. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. RSS feed here. Thanks to Leah Dion for the intro music, to Bad Infinity for music throughout the episode, and to B for the outro music. Get the mp3 of the episode here.

https://alwaysalreadypodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/neoliberalism-interview.mp3

Next Episode

Psychoanalysis, Liberalism, and Trump – AAP After Dark 3

Join James, John, and Emily for another installment of Always Already After Dark. In this episode we (accidentally?) discuss the Twilight franchise before delving into an Emmett Rensin essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books titled, “The Blathering Superego at the End of History.” We discuss the superego as metaphor, as critique, and as an account of history, while trying to parse out what psychoanalysis can tell us about liberalism’s current predicaments. Is white supremacy the id to liberalism’s superego? How should we understand (and perhaps challenge) the managerial power of liberalism? And how does all this relate to Trump and the Democratic Party? Plus – try to count how many times James says “Hegel” (Hint, it’s a lot)!

Support us on Patreon to help us upgrade our recording equipment. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. RSS feed here. Thanks to Leah Dion for the intro music, and to B for the outro music. Get the mp3 of the episode here.

Links!