Instituto de Relaes Internacionais

PUC-Rio

2015.2
Biopolitics

Professor Jimmy Casas Klausen

Michel Foucault identified a unique mode of power, distinct from both sovereignty and discipline,
operating in Euro-Atlantic societies in the modern period, though with roots in early modern
practices and discourses of government developing out of Christian pastoral power. He
called this unique mode of power biopolitics, a power that fosters life, and associated it with
specific objects, discourses, practices, and effectsfor example, a new entity called the
population, a seemingly redundant effect he called the governmentalization of the state, new
forms of war, the invention of practices of security, and discourses of race. How did the
fostering of life become central to practices of modern states? And how does it become
reconcilable with the fact of brutal violent death in modern and contemporary conflicts? By what
mechanisms is it possible to foster some kinds of life over others? And what are the historical
interactions between biopolitics, sovereignty, and discipline as distinct but sometimes convergent
modes of power?
In this course, we explore such questions by considering the work of Foucault in depth. In the
first section of the course, in addition to reading Foucaults central works from the period of
approximately 1975 to 1979, we examine a few other thinkers on the question of life or
living (Adorno, Arendt, Bataille, Becker). We then move on to examine how biopolitics
became a central problematic in recent Italian philosophy (Agamben, Esposito, Hardt/Negri),
with particular attention to the question of how the distance these thinkers take from Foucault
might be productive or not. After some consideration of some critical extensions of the
biopolitical problematic in other fields (with readings by Mbembe, Berlant, Brown, Povinelli, and
others), we then end the course with a focus on biopolitics, security, and war (Butler, Dillon/Reid,
Chamayou, Bargu, and essays by Grayson, Campbell, Reid, and others).
Requirements. Aside from thorough and careful reading, there are two requirements for this
seminar. First, each participant must launch discussion once during the semester. Three elements
comprise this task: (1) you must draw your colleagues attention to a passage from the assigned
reading that you consider significant, paradoxical, or conceptually rich; (2) in a presentation of
about ten minutes in length, you must analyze the passage in relation to the broader themes of the
course; (3) you must pose at least three textually grounded questions to your colleagues as an
entry point for discussion.
Second, you must complete a project of relevance to your own research interests. The final
project may take the form of a standard seminar paper that constructively critiques thinkers or
arguments we consider together, a series of review essays, original research that incorporates or
creates a dialogue with some of the assigned readings, or some other written project. In
consultation with me, and given that I consider our discussion and collective critical analysis of
the readings the true center of the course, you should propose a project that accords with a
realistic assessment of your constraints and commitments.
Texts. Most assigned readings will be available through access to the program Dropbox; these
are marked with a triple asterisk. Other readings (or films or film clips) are available via a url, as
specified below. In some cases, the texts may be available in Portuguese (or other) translations,

which you are welcome to read instead of the English-language texts. When a Portugueselanguage edition of a text is available in Dropbox, I give both the English and the Portuguese
titles below.

Reading schedule.
17 de agosto.
Introduction.
24 de agosto.
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume I / Histria da sexualidade I, Part V.
Foucault, Abnormal / Os Anormais, lecture/aula de 15 de janeiro de 1975.
Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, pginas 14-41, 239-64;
/ Em defesa da sociedade, pginas 18-48, 285-316.
Foucault, Crisis of Medicine or the Crisis of Antimedicine?
Foucault, Security, Territory, Population / Segurana, territrio, populao, lectures/aulas de 11 e
18 de janeiro de 1978.
31 de agosto.
Foucault, Security, Territory, Population / Segurana, territrio, populao, lecture/aula de 25 de
janeiro de 1978.
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, sections 1, 12-13, 24, 28.
Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life / Minima Moralia (portugus
brasileiro), Dedication, aphorisms 33, 48, 61, 105, 113, 147-48.
Georges Bataille, The Accursed Share, Volume I, Preface & Part I.
Gary S. Becker, Human Capital, from The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/HumanCapital.html
Gary S. Becker, Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to
Education, 3d ed., pginas 11-26.
7 de setembro. Recesso, Independncia.
14 de setembro.
Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population / Segurana, territrio, populao, resto das
aulas.
21 de setembro. Class will not meet today.
28 de setembro.
Foucault, Birth of Biopolitics / Nascimento da biopoltica (todo).

5 de outubro.
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life / Homo sacer: o poder
soberano e a vida nua, Introduction through Part III, chapter 4.
12 de outubro. Recesso, Nossa Senhora Aparecida. [TO BE RESCHEDULED.]
Agamben, Homo Sacer, Part III, chapter 5 to end.
Agamben, State of Exception / Estado da exceo.
Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, Empire / Imprio, chapters 1.2, 4.1.
19 de outubro.
Hardt & Negri, Commonwealth, pginas 56-82, 119-49, 165-78.
Roberto Esposito, Bos: Biopolitics and Philosophy, pginas 1-109.
26 de outubro.
Esposito, Bos, pginas 110-94.
Nikolas Rose, Politics of Life Itself, pginas 1-40, 131-86.
2 de novembro. Recesso, Finados. [TO BE RESCHEDULED.]
Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics
Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism, chap. 3
Elizabeth Povinelli, Economies of Abandonment, chap. 3.
Wendy Brown, Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire, chap. 4
Sandro Mezzsadra, Julian Reid, and Ranabir Samaddar, Introduction: Reading Foucault in the
Postcolonial Present, in The Biopolitics of Development: Reading Michel Foucault in
the Postcolonial Present, ed. Mezzadra, Reid, and Samaddar, pginas 1-15.
Ranabir Samaddar, Michel Foucault and Our Postcolonial Time, in Biopolitics of Development,
ed. Mezzadra et al., pginas 25-44.
9 de novembro.
Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence.
16 de novembro.
Julian Reid, Interrogating the Neoliberal Biopolitics of the Sustainable Development-Resilience
Nexus, in Biopolitics of Development, ed. Mezzadra et al., pginas 107-23.
David Campbell, The Biopolitics of Security: Oil, Empire, and the Sports Utility Vehicle
Michael Dillon and Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Biopolitics of Security in the 21st Century, An
Introduction
M.G.E. Kelley, International Biopolitcs: Foucault, Globalisation and Imperialism [26]
Miguel de Larrinaga & Marc G. Doucet, Sovereign Power and the Biopolitics of Human
Security
Kyle Grayson, The Ambivalence of Assassination: Biopolitics, Culture, and Political Violence
23 de novembro.
Michael Dillon & Julian Reid, The Liberal Way of War: Killing to Make Life Live.

30 de novembro.
Grgoire Chamayou, Manhunts: A Philosophical History.
7 de decembro. Recesso, Nossa Senhora de Conceio. [TO BE RESCHEDULED.]
Banu Bargu, Starve and Immolate: The Politics of Human Weapons, pginas 1-163.