“‘Is it Life?’ [. . .] ‘I Would Rather Be Without it’”: Flann O’Brien and the Fictive State of Exception
Abstract
“The characters of a novel are beings that are shut up, prisoners,” writes Emmanuel Levinas in 1948. This is not to say that a novelist only “represents beings crushed by fate,” but rather “beings enter their fate because they are represented.” Giorgio Agamben would credit the writings of Levinas with an early articulation of “this new ontological determination of man,” what the former would theorize as the “bare life” populating our modern biopolitical paradigm, the “camp.” Levinas’ identification of the novel as a fictional forerunner to the 20th Century’s permanent states of exception, aligns his work with Irish Modernist Flann O’Brien, who, in his first novel At Swim-Two-Birds, writes of the injustice of “despotic” novelists “compel[ling] characters” into their prescribed roles. Employing O’Brien as a case study, this paper will explore the connection between Levinas’ aesthetic critique of the antidemocratic novel and its material counterpart in Agamben’s theorisation of the “camp.”
Abstract
“The characters of a novel are beings that are shut up, prisoners,” writes Emmanuel Levinas in 1948. This is not to say that a novelist only “represents beings crushed by fate,” but rather “beings enter their fate because they are represented.” Giorgio Agamben would credit the writings of Levinas with an early articulation of “this new ontological determination of man,” what the former would theorize as the “bare life” populating our modern biopolitical paradigm, the “camp.” Levinas’ identification of the novel as a fictional forerunner to the 20th Century’s permanent states of exception, aligns his work with Irish Modernist Flann O’Brien, who, in his first novel At Swim-Two-Birds, writes of the injustice of “despotic” novelists “compel[ling] characters” into their prescribed roles. Employing O’Brien as a case study, this paper will explore the connection between Levinas’ aesthetic critique of the antidemocratic novel and its material counterpart in Agamben’s theorisation of the “camp.”
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
-
The Human Condition of Exception: Collected Essays
- Words Behind Bars: Philosophy, Literature and the Experience of Detention 1
- The Scream as a Universal Language of Pain 15
- I confini dell’umano: il laboratorio di Auschwitz 21
- Agamben e il campo come paradigma biopolitico 35
- Testimoniare l’intestimoniabile: l’aporia di Auschwitz 47
- “To Restitute a New Privilege to the Inner Life”: Emmanuel Levinas and the Experience of Captivity 59
- Pain is Without Why: The (Non)Sense of Suffering After the Shoah 71
- Prisoners’ Rebellion Against the Silence of God: André Neher and Elie Wiesel 85
- “Suonare per vivere”: la musica utopica nei campi 95
- The Soundtrack of Extermination 111
- Pensare il campo di sterminio a partire da Per la critica della violenza di Benjamin 127
- “‘Is it Life?’ [. . .] ‘I Would Rather Be Without it’”: Flann O’Brien and the Fictive State of Exception 139
- Lost at Sea: Internment on the Argenta Prison Ship 1922–1925 151
- Transforming Narratives: Unveiling the Detained Voice 161
- Contributors and Editors 169
-
Aldo Quarisa’s Diary: An Italian-English Edition
- Dedication 175
- Acknowledgements 177
- Prefazione 179
- Preface 181
- Signals of Survival: Radio Technology and Communication in WWII Camps 185
- Hungry as a Prisoner 195
- Diario 203
- Diary 263
- Index 323
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
-
The Human Condition of Exception: Collected Essays
- Words Behind Bars: Philosophy, Literature and the Experience of Detention 1
- The Scream as a Universal Language of Pain 15
- I confini dell’umano: il laboratorio di Auschwitz 21
- Agamben e il campo come paradigma biopolitico 35
- Testimoniare l’intestimoniabile: l’aporia di Auschwitz 47
- “To Restitute a New Privilege to the Inner Life”: Emmanuel Levinas and the Experience of Captivity 59
- Pain is Without Why: The (Non)Sense of Suffering After the Shoah 71
- Prisoners’ Rebellion Against the Silence of God: André Neher and Elie Wiesel 85
- “Suonare per vivere”: la musica utopica nei campi 95
- The Soundtrack of Extermination 111
- Pensare il campo di sterminio a partire da Per la critica della violenza di Benjamin 127
- “‘Is it Life?’ [. . .] ‘I Would Rather Be Without it’”: Flann O’Brien and the Fictive State of Exception 139
- Lost at Sea: Internment on the Argenta Prison Ship 1922–1925 151
- Transforming Narratives: Unveiling the Detained Voice 161
- Contributors and Editors 169
-
Aldo Quarisa’s Diary: An Italian-English Edition
- Dedication 175
- Acknowledgements 177
- Prefazione 179
- Preface 181
- Signals of Survival: Radio Technology and Communication in WWII Camps 185
- Hungry as a Prisoner 195
- Diario 203
- Diary 263
- Index 323
