ABSTRACT
It is acknowledged by Agamben’s critics (Murray, 2010; Zartaloudis; 2010; Salzani, 2013a; Whyte, 2013) that his political turn is signified within the investigation and publication of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (1998[1995]) and manifested throughout the Homo Sacer projects. However, such political interests can be found in the book The Coming Community (1993b[1990]), which can be considered as a hinge between earlier linguistic and ontological works and a renewed attention to properly political subjects. Stylistically and methodologically this hinge is also quite evident. As de la Durantaye reminds us, “whereas the earlier work offered ‘ideas’ the later one offers something that Agamben will call, in this work and those to come, paradigms” (2009: 156), which in messianic, profanation, potentiality and inoperativity will represent a renewed ‘ethical’ and thus political vocabulary. As a series of specific chapters will be dedicated later in the book to elucidate this conceptual apparatus, this chapter follows the chronological progression adopted earlier, where Agamben’s different works are presented briefly and illustrated, grouping his intellectual production and aiming, although synthetically, to highlight his whole production and elucidating specific projects and fundamental milestones.
