Health Biopolitics in Literature, Film and Games
Call for Papers:
Health Biopolitics in Literature, Film and Games
Conference at the University of Tartu, 17/18 September 2021
(on location intended, online participation possible if necessary)
The events surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic have led to previously unheard-of bio-political measures, resulting in deep and lasting transformations of our societies. Film and literature, however, have for decades suggested scenarios for pandemics and models of society wherein health-policy shapes political structures and common life.
Biopolitics is by no means a new phenomenon. The term was coined by Morley Roberts in 1938 to discuss the relevance of evolutionary theory for political patterns. It is, rather, Michel Foucault’s use of the term that is relevant for this conference. In his lectures at the Collège de France from 1975 to 1976, he employed the term to describe a shift in sovereign power in the 18th century from the power to make die and let live to the power to make live and let die. In his lectures from 1978 to 1979, he defined bio-politics as a rationalisation of the problems posed to a government by issues such as health, hygiene, reproduction, life expectancy, and their political and economic consequences. Foucault claims that, in establishing a liberal economic system, attention was directed towards the population and methods for regulating it, so that it could be put to the best economic and political use. These biopolitical measures aimed also at enabling people to lead a healthy, prosperous and good life. Foucault asks, however, how come that this idea also led to destructive and fatal processes. For example, he mentions racism, which legitimised the suppression of life-forms perceived to be lower from the perspective of the biopower. From such a biological viewpoint, the destruction of others is desirable, not because they would be political enemies, but because they are seen as detrimental to the health of the population. In the name of the norm, the suppression and killing of others becomes acceptable. Examples of this biopolitical logic can be easily found in the 20th century.
What for Foucault was a general and possibly neutral technology of power, for Giorgio Agamben becomes the dividing line between worthy and unworthy life in his reflections on the homo sacer. In his view, politics in our time has become subordinate to the notion of the sovereign, defined by Carl Schmitt as the one who can declare the state of exception. The fundamental political structure of our time is biopolitical and totalitarian, claims Agamben, and concentration camps with their negation of the status of humans are its expression, since politics looks at people exclusively as life in a purely biological sense. These claims may be exaggerated, but their merit lies in drawing attention to the value of the human as a form of life, as he calls it.
This conference wants to initiate a discussion on the forms of life and the shifts they are currently undergoing in connection with Covid-19. While there has already been considerable academic discussion of health policies and emergency measures, analyses of representations of biopolitics have been much rarer. We believe, however, that literary, filmic and game representations help to both establish and challenge biopolitical norms. They offer model strategies and potential consequences and thus propose important correctives to the way new states of exception are implemented. An awareness of different options and their implications is key for how humanity will develop in critical times. Such representations are invaluable in understanding biopolitics in the context of pandemics like the present one.
We invite papers that analyse literature, film and games dealing with health under biopolitical perspectives. What can be learned from these works of art about the current situation and the way our societies deal with the Covid-19 crisis?
A publication based on the conference is planned. There is no participation fee.
Please send proposals with an abstract (200-300 w) and a bioblurb (100 w) to Marko Pajević (marko.pajevic [ät] ut.ee) and Raili Marling (raili.marling [ät] ut.ee) by 31 March 2021.
