This thesis examines how transnational gay and queer discourses conceal ongoing forms of violence against multiple subaltern populations, through the seemingly natural teleology and progressive nature assigned to gay rights and queerness. I use the theoretical framework of necropolitics, developed by Achille Mbembe who analyzes how power is exercised through killing and death, to examine two sites of violence that are typically presented as progressive: transnational gay rights and queer tourism. First, I demonstrate that the problem of ‘anti-gay’ violence in non-western subaltern contexts is not due to a lack of legal rights, as most western activists have framed the issue, but is rather an issue of non-controlled forms of lateral violence carried out by non-state actors against multiple groups. Second, I reveal that the representation of queer tourism as progressive masks subjection of subaltern labourers to violence and death. These findings suggest that relations of power constituted through necropolitics should be the lens through which violence in subaltern contexts is read. This perspective is in opposition to most western based transnational discourses that misread and disregard forms of violence in subaltern contexts and consequently facilitate the recurrence of violence in these contexts. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-21 12:17:17.871

O fio condutor desta tese é o caso de uma vala clandestina, oficialmente descoberta, em 1990, no Cemitério Dom Bosco, no bairro de Perus, em São Paulo, no qual foram encontrados mais de 1500 sacos plásticos contendo remanescentes mortais humanos, alguns deles identificados como sendo de desaparecidos políticos executados pela ditadura brasileira. A partir desse caso, a tese realiza um duplo movimento: primeiramente, trata-se de mostrar os limites das elaborações de Foucault, Esposito e Agamben para a compreensão da vala clandestina de Perus. Mais fecundas para isso se revelam as teorias do sociólogo camaronês Achille Mbembe sobre a especificidade das relações entre poder e morte nas regiões coloniais, imperiais e neocoloniais, nas quais ele identifica a existência da necropolítica, isto é, de um poder que produz morte e cria condições mortíferas para subordinar populações. Simultaneamente, o segundo movimento que realiza a tese consiste em explorar as contribuições que a análise do caso da vala de Perus, em particular, e dos dispositivos desaparecedores, em geral, oferecem para a complementação das teorias de Mbembe. Com efeito, esses dispositivos, dentre os quais os sepultamentos clandestinos ocupam um lugar importante, resultados, no Brasil, da associação entre diversos mecanismos de desaparecimento na ditadura militar, revelam um aspecto da necropolítica pouco explorado por Mbembe e que chamamos de necrogovernamentalidade. Com esse termo, queremos chamar a atenção para o fato de que a necropolítica, como mostram os dispositivos desaparecedores, não apenas utiliza da maximização das condições mortíferas para governar, como se ocupa, também, dos processos post-mortem, isto é, da administração dos corpos, dos rituais fúnebres, das rotinas burocráticas da morte e da gestão do luto. Assim, explicita-se o nexo entre necropolítica e subjetivação, pois, como novamente revelam os dispositivos desaparecedores, a necrogovernamentalidade, ao distribuir de maneira desigual a possibilidade de prantear publicamente as mortes, induz a generalização de formas de subjetividade melancólicas e, por isso, submetidas à dominação. / This thesiss guiding thread is an illegal common grave officially discovered in 1990, in the Dom Bosco Cemitery, in the neighborhood of Perus, São Paulo. In this grave, more than 1,500 plastic bags were found containing mortal remains, some identified as being political victims of enforced disappearance perpetrated by the Brazilian dictatorship. Taking its cue from this case, this thesis argues for two main points: first, we show the inadequacies of Foucaults, Espositos, and Agambens political theories in dealing with this particular case. Here, the Cameroonian sociologist Achille Mbembes theory are much more fruitful, especially his account of the particularity of the relationship between power and death in the colonial, imperial, and neo-colonial regions. Mbembe identifies in those regions the existence of a necropolitics, that is, a kind of power which produces death and that creates deadly situations in order to subjugate local populations. Nevertheless, Mbembes theories also have their own inadequacies, so the second main point of this thesis is to show how an adequate understanding of the phenomenon surrounding Peruss common grave and, more generally, what we call the disappearance dispositif, can help us to overcome these deficiencies. Indeed, this dispositif, which comprises, as an important part, the illegal burial, can be thought as of resulting from, in the Brazilian case, the association between, and unification of, several disappearance mechanisms by the Brazilian dictatorship. This type of association and unification reveals a necropolitical aspect not explored by Mbembe, namely what we call necrogovernmentality. We coined this term, necrogovernmentality, in order to call attention to the fact that necropolitics, as is uncovered by a careful analysis of the disappearance dispositif, not only maximizes deadly conditions in order to better subjugate, but also manages the post-mortem processesthe management of the bodies, of the burial rites, of the bureaucratic routines of death and mourning. This is important, because we are thus able to uncover a deep connection between necropolitics and subjectivation: the disappearance dispositif and its associated necrogovernmentality distributes in an uneven manner the possibility of public mourning, and hence induces a dissemination of melancholic subjects, subjects that are therefore more easily subjugated.

O fio condutor desta tese é o caso de uma vala clandestina, oficialmente descoberta, em 1990, no Cemitério Dom Bosco, no bairro de Perus, em São Paulo, no qual foram encontrados mais de 1500 sacos plásticos contendo remanescentes mortais humanos, alguns deles identificados como sendo de desaparecidos políticos executados pela ditadura brasileira. A partir desse caso, a tese realiza um duplo movimento: primeiramente, trata-se de mostrar os limites das elaborações de Foucault, Esposito e Agamben para a compreensão da vala clandestina de Perus. Mais fecundas para isso se revelam as teorias do sociólogo camaronês Achille Mbembe sobre a especificidade das relações entre poder e morte nas regiões coloniais, imperiais e neocoloniais, nas quais ele identifica a existência da necropolítica, isto é, de um poder que produz morte e cria condições mortíferas para subordinar populações. Simultaneamente, o segundo movimento que realiza a tese consiste em explorar as contribuições que a análise do caso da vala de Perus, em particular, e dos dispositivos desaparecedores, em geral, oferecem para a complementação das teorias de Mbembe. Com efeito, esses dispositivos, dentre os quais os sepultamentos clandestinos ocupam um lugar importante, resultados, no Brasil, da associação entre diversos mecanismos de desaparecimento na ditadura militar, revelam um aspecto da necropolítica pouco explorado por Mbembe e que chamamos de necrogovernamentalidade. Com esse termo, queremos chamar a atenção para o fato de que a necropolítica, como mostram os dispositivos desaparecedores, não apenas utiliza da maximização das condições mortíferas para governar, como se ocupa, também, dos processos post-mortem, isto é, da administração dos corpos, dos rituais fúnebres, das rotinas burocráticas da morte e da gestão do luto. Assim, explicita-se o nexo entre necropolítica e subjetivação, pois, como novamente revelam os dispositivos desaparecedores, a necrogovernamentalidade, ao distribuir de maneira desigual a possibilidade de prantear publicamente as mortes, induz a generalização de formas de subjetividade melancólicas e, por isso, submetidas à dominação. / This thesiss guiding thread is an illegal common grave officially discovered in 1990, in the Dom Bosco Cemitery, in the neighborhood of Perus, São Paulo. In this grave, more than 1,500 plastic bags were found containing mortal remains, some identified as being political victims of enforced disappearance perpetrated by the Brazilian dictatorship. Taking its cue from this case, this thesis argues for two main points: first, we show the inadequacies of Foucaults, Espositos, and Agambens political theories in dealing with this particular case. Here, the Cameroonian sociologist Achille Mbembes theory are much more fruitful, especially his account of the particularity of the relationship between power and death in the colonial, imperial, and neo-colonial regions. Mbembe identifies in those regions the existence of a necropolitics, that is, a kind of power which produces death and that creates deadly situations in order to subjugate local populations. Nevertheless, Mbembes theories also have their own inadequacies, so the second main point of this thesis is to show how an adequate understanding of the phenomenon surrounding Peruss common grave and, more generally, what we call the disappearance dispositif, can help us to overcome these deficiencies. Indeed, this dispositif, which comprises, as an important part, the illegal burial, can be thought as of resulting from, in the Brazilian case, the association between, and unification of, several disappearance mechanisms by the Brazilian dictatorship. This type of association and unification reveals a necropolitical aspect not explored by Mbembe, namely what we call necrogovernmentality. We coined this term, necrogovernmentality, in order to call attention to the fact that necropolitics, as is uncovered by a careful analysis of the disappearance dispositif, not only maximizes deadly conditions in order to better subjugate, but also manages the post-mortem processesthe management of the bodies, of the burial rites, of the bureaucratic routines of death and mourning. This is important, because we are thus able to uncover a deep connection between necropolitics and subjectivation: the disappearance dispositif and its associated necrogovernmentality distributes in an uneven manner the possibility of public mourning, and hence induces a dissemination of melancholic subjects, subjects that are therefore more easily subjugated.

abstract: This thesis examines the rhetorical relationship between migrant death and American culture, with an emphasis on how postmortem treatment of the deceased gives shape to anti-migrant attitudes. By isolating one instance of death on the border and considering the discourse that ensued in the following two months, this research assesses mechanisms of a rhetoric of death (necrorhetoric) as they relate to sociopolitical constructions of the migrant. The political apparatus of the State as a natural extension of biopower confers upon it the authority to produce sacred life or bare life (homo sacer). This process of production creates conditions of being which precede the potential to kill without allegation of murder, constructs the content of sovereign power, and results in a social sense-making, or public doxa, that informs cultural values and justifies collective attitudes. As the process is perfected, meticulous and calculated demonstrations of force become a crucial exercise of sovereignty. Efforts to enforce and maintain control of the border develop into increasingly streamlined methods, placing the state on an incremental trajectory of power that inaugurates ritualized and state sanctioned violence. The aggrieved take on a sociopolitical role that renders their lives less than fully human, allowing further alienation and segregation to occur. The desire to maintain sovereign power is the typifying force around which United States history has been shaped, and this desire continues to inform contemporary American policy. Analysis of legal, presidential, and news documents pertaining to the deaths of Oscar Martinez Ramirez and his twenty-three-month-old daughter, Valeria, reveals a network of rhetorical maneuvering that gives evidence of a necropolitical environment defined by its intentional and obscure brutality. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis English 2020

My PhD is a study of the politically charged literary and visual works that have emerged in response to escalating violence in contemporary Mexico. Providing close, comparative readings of fictional, theoretical and documentary works by critically-acclaimed authors Jorge Volpi, Cristina Rivera Garza, Mario Bellatin and Juan Pablo Villalobos, and award-winning filmmakers Carlos Reygadas, Amat Escalante and Natalia Almada, my chapters examine explicit and oblique cultural engagements with topics such as the political assassinations of the 1990s, the dispossession brought on by the neoliberal restructuring of the economy, and the violence prompted by the so-called ‘War on Drugs’. The cultural texts I examine share a concern with visualising and deconstructing the close relationship between death and power that marks the contemporary political terrain. I contend that narrative has become a critical site of cultural contestation, and discuss the ways in which experiments with the assemblage and frustration of narrative intertwine with issues related to visuality, embodiment and the nonhuman. Through my discussion of these themes, I trace out the ways in which cultural texts frequently employ narrative strategies that are rooted in dispersal, displacement and loss when engaging with destructive power. These strategies, I argue, pose urgent questions about the interrelation of violence and aesthetics, speak to critical shifts in the relationship between culture and the nation-state, and are marshalled to launch tentative appeals to forms of politics and ethics that work through spaces of shared dispossession. My thesis offers an innovative framework through which to theorise these cultural processes by reframing the notion of ‘excess’, a foundational concept in scholarship on death and power that has seen a resurgence in contemporary political philosophy. In dialogue with authors such as Georges Bataille, Achille Mbembe, Adriana Cavarero, Roberto Esposito, Michel Foucault and Jacques Rancière, and with close reference to the ‘necropolitical’ theory and cultural texts authored in Mexico, I posit excess as an analytical term that can encompass both reflexive critiques of spectacular violence and latent forms of resistance to this violence that proceed through loss and displacement.

abstract: The state of exception in Rwanda did not spontaneously occur in Rwanda, it was initially developed by German and Belgian colonizers, adopted by two successive Hutu regimes, and nurtured and fed for 35 years of Rwandan independence until its final realization in the 1994 genocide. Political theory regarding the development of the "space devoid of law" and necropolitics provide a framework with which to analyze the long pattern of state action that created a milieu in which genocide was an acceptable choice of action for a sovereign at risk of losing power. The study of little-known political theories such as Agamben's and Mbembe's is useful because it provides a lens through which we can analyze current state action throughout the world. As is true in many genocidal regimes, the Rwandan genocide did not just occur as a "descent into hell." Rather, state action over the course of decades in which the subjects of the state (People) were systematically converted into mere flesh beings (people), devoid of political or social value, creates the setting in which it is feasible to seek to eliminate those beings. A question to be posed to political actors and observers around the world today is at what point in the process of one nation's creation of the state of exception and adoption of necropolitics does the world have a right, and a duty, to intervene? Thus far, it has always occurred too late for the "people" in that sovereign to realize their political and social potential to be "People." / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2012

By examining the allegorical ways which bodies are produced and their movement controlled within J.M. Coetzee’s works, Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace, this thesis follows the shifting paradigm of power from apartheid’s presumption of unity of the state to the rainbow nation’s constitutional declaration that its citizens are “unified in [their] diversity” and equal under the law. In my chapter on Waiting for the Barbarians, I argue that the state creates a fiction of unity which allows the state to invoke claims of emergency and suspend the law; within this suspension, an economy of sacrifice functions to cleanse the state of its misdeeds in the eyes of its citizens. In my second chapter, I argue that Disgrace’s character’s dramatize how legal equality and rituals of reconciliation fail to create unity and instead inscribes the characters into a secular economy of sacrifice and cycles of violent enmity.

Thesis advisor: Andrew L. Prevot / Anti-Black racism and white supremacy are critical and interrelated contemporary crises. Achille Mbembe theorizes the confluence of these crises in the concepts of necropolitics and Black reason. But Mbembe does not elaborate the historical relationship between anti-Black necropolitics and Christian thought. I address this aporia in my dissertation while also formulating a theological response through an integrated reading of James Cone and Johann Baptist Metz. In Chapter One, I adopt Mbembe’s framework to contend that the uncritical coöptation of Black reason by white Christianity has resulted in a necropolitical theology, which I demonstrate through an evaluation of three theological loci: anthropology, Christology, and eschatology. Turning to constructive possibilities, chapter two introduces Cone and Metz, whose theologies I read against necropolitical theology. Chapter Two argues that Cone’s revaluation of Blackness as God’s intent for humanity meets Metz’s call for an anthropological revolution of white Christians at the point of conversion: a decision to die to whiteness and become Black with God. Chapter Three emphasizes revelation in Cone’s Christology as an objective Black event; the subjective, ecstatic encounter with the crucified and resurrected Christ; and the necessity of the Cross for theological imagination. Metz’s Holy Saturday Christology, specifically, his paradigmatic memoria passionis, grounded in the descensus ad infernos, complements Cone’s notion of concrete and transformative encounter with Jesus as it emphasizes solidarity with the oppressed. Chapter Four addresses the deformation of Christian hope by necropolitical theology. I integrate Cone’s analysis of Black hope in existential, material, and apocalyptic interpretations of eschatology with Metz’s eschatological proviso which, above all, suggests that one must see the future from the memory of the suffering and the dead. In the United States, I argue that this means white Christians are called to relational praxis in solidarity with oppressed Black communities. In Chapter Five, the conclusion, I look to the pericope on discipleship in Mark 8 in tandem with the theological interventions from Cone and Metz to provide an assessment of what it might mean for white Christians to become Black with God. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

This thesis explores the relation between technology and the social, how they determine and naturalize each other, by examining YouTube's socio-technical infrastructure. YouTube is theorized as a dispositif that produces regimes of knowledge, power and subjectification within "control societies" characterized by an informational mode of production. Utilizing a media archaeological and materialist, critical theoretical approach, I analyze YouTube's database, interface, users, algorithms and protocols alongside economic factors, media, advertising and intellectual property laws, as technical and social forces of production in which power relations arise. I find that YouTube incites users to make themselves visible through information inputs, processed by database algorithms to produce outputs as inevitable representations of user actions. On the interface, this is translated as a sequence of algorimages, defined by what is "up next", in accordance with an information and "attention economy" extracting revenue by capturing and commodifying users' attention into hierarchies of value. I conclude that algorimages, whether of cats or political violence, are made homogeneous by the execution of an algorithmic command of continual update, propagating them through their destruction as necropower in a necropolitical regime of visibility, producing YouTube as an "ecology of finitude" and control societies as an inevitable, "third nature".

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