TY - JOUR

T1 - The Secret Agent: Necropolitics, Democracy, and the Community without Qualification

AU - Burke, Tristan

PY - 2023/11

Y1 - 2023/11

N2 - In its juxtaposition of liberal government and terrorist violence, metropole and colony, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent explores the imbrication of modes of biopolitical and necropolitical sovereignty. Taking as its starting point Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics, which has not yet been widely discussed in relation to Conrad’s work, this essay argues that Conrad analyses a shift from biopolitical liberal democracy to necropolitical terror. Necropolitics, however, also forms the basis on which radically democratic communities of the biopolitically outcast, can form communities of resistance to sovereign power.

AB - In its juxtaposition of liberal government and terrorist violence, metropole and colony, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent explores the imbrication of modes of biopolitical and necropolitical sovereignty. Taking as its starting point Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics, which has not yet been widely discussed in relation to Conrad’s work, this essay argues that Conrad analyses a shift from biopolitical liberal democracy to necropolitical terror. Necropolitics, however, also forms the basis on which radically democratic communities of the biopolitically outcast, can form communities of resistance to sovereign power.

KW - terrorism

KW - disability

KW - liberal

KW - London

KW - imperialism

KW - Achille Mbembe

KW - Jacques Rancière

UR - https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/vic

U2 - 10.3366/vic.2023.0504

DO - 10.3366/vic.2023.0504

M3 - Article

VL - 13

SP - 277

EP - 297

JO - Victoriographies: A Journal of the Long Nineteenth Century

JF - Victoriographies: A Journal of the Long Nineteenth Century

SN - 2044-2416

IS - 3

ER -