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2021 Literary Criticism Dictionary: Biopolitics

2021 Literary Criticism Dictionary
Biopolitics
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table of contents
  1. A
    1. Aesthetics
    2. Alterity/The Other
    3. Anzaldúa, Gloria
    4. Arendt, Hannah
    5. St. Augustine of Hippo
  2. B
    1. de Beauvoir, Simone
    2. Biopolitics
    3. Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo
    4. Butler, Judith
  3. C
    1. Cognitive Dissonance
    2. Crip Theory
    3. Critical Race Theory
  4. D
    1. Democratization
    2. Derrida, Jacques
    3. Du Bois, W.E.B.
  5. E
    1. The Enlightenment
    2. Enmity
    3. Ethnology
    4. Existentialism
  6. F
    1. Fanon, Frantz
    2. Feinberg, Leslie
    3. Feminist Phenomenology
    4. Ferguson, Roderick
    5. Foucault, Michael
  7. G
    1. Group Conflict Theory
  8. H
    1. Heidegger, Martin
    2. Hermeneutics (and the Need to Listen)
    3. The History of Sexuality, by Michel Foucault
    4. Husserl, Edmund
  9. I
    1. Intersectionality
  10. M
    1. Manifestos
    2. Marxism
    3. Messianism
  11. N
    1. Natural Selection and Eugenics
    2. Nietzsche, Friedrich
  12. P
    1. Penelope, Julia
    2. Postcolonial Theory
    3. Postmodernism
    4. Post Structuralism
    5. Psychoanalysis
  13. Q
    1. Queer Theory
  14. R
    1. Reproductive Futurism
  15. S
    1. Said, Edward
    2. de Saussure, Ferdinand
    3. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky
    4. Soft Power
    5. Sovereignty
    6. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty
    7. “The Eternal Stranger”
  16. T
    1. Terror Management Theory
    2. Transnationalism
  17. W
    1. Walker, Alice
    2. “The Wandering Womb”

Biopolitics   

by Robert Siuta          

Biopolitics is a concept that describes the mixture of human life and politics. As of recently, biopolitics has taken a much bigger form, as political figures are making decisions about people's bodies almost every day, with regards to abortion laws, ICE putting people in cages, etc. One of the main voices of biopolitics is Michel Foucault, a writer who has authored many works on biopolitics. The main idea Foucault brings up, according to Rachel Adams’  “Michel Foucault: Biopolitics and Biopower” is how biopolitics often has a skewed lens due to authority and who is in power. Authority always outweighs knowledge, meaning those with knowledge (but without any authority) essentially have nothing to do with the knowledge they possess. This has become a problem in modern day society, as those with the authority outweigh those with knowledge, perseverance, and passion. Across the United States, especially in 2020, there have been movements that almost seem to be dissipating due to the fact that those holding the authority, the government, don’t agree with them. Movements such as “Black Lives Matter'' and movements dedicated to social equality not only among race but sexual orientation, specifically those in the LGBTIAP+ category, have seen their voices muted. Biopolitics has been used throughout the 20th and 21st century, from the Nazis using it to control the bodies of those they occupied, to various writers using it in their work, most notably Foucault, as well as many political figures today.

Primary Reading:

Adams, Rachel. “Michel Foucault: Biopolitics and Biopower.” Critical Legal Thinking, May 10th,  2017, criticallegalthinking.com/2017/05/10/michel-foucault-biopolitics-biopower/

Anthrobiopolitcs. “The Anthropology of Biopolitics”, Wordpress, January 21st, 2013, https://anthrobiopolitics.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/biopolitics-an-overview/

Foucalt, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics. St Martin’s Press, 1979.

Further Reading:

Adams, Rachel. “Michel Foucault: Biopolitics and Biopower.” Critical Legal Thinking, May 10th,  2017, criticallegalthinking.com/2017/05/10/michel-foucault-biopolitics-biopower/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021.

Anthrobiopolitcs. “The Anthropology of Biopolitics”, Wordpress, January 21st, 2013, https://anthrobiopolitics.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/biopolitics-an-overview/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021.

Esposito, Roberto. Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Mills, Catherine. “Biopolitics”. October 4th, 2017.

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