Developed across (1978), (1982), Infancy and History Language and Death The Idea (1985) and (1998), describes an experience of Prose Remnants of Auschwitz “infancy” of language beyond the logic of inclusive exclusion, an experience of potentiality rather than violent exposure. Agamben’s recurrent figure of infantile potentiality is the or walking fish,” an amphibian that retains juvenile axolotl, “Mexican characteristics (gills) even after the development of adult traits (lungs and reproductive organs). With this figure of an child,” Agamben suggests that a “eternal new relation between human and non-human animals might emerge via a new childlike experience of language. While the is a curious and clarifying figure, in this essay, I argue that the axolotl amphibian betrays the limitations of infancy for any Shabbat of animal and man beyond the anthropological machine. On my reading of the Agamben axolotl, conflates infantile potentiality with infantile and, in this way, abstracts independence early experiences of language from important experiences of dependence (like the relation of children to their mothers). While Agamben would like to disconnect the constitution of language from its dependence on violence (against non-human animals), his attempt to locate language in a radical independence bears a violence of its own. Instead of jamming the anthropological machine, infancy re-functions it. If Agamben is to provide more than critical offerings for the field of critical animal studies, I argue that he must more thoroughly [himself] in the emptiness” of a “risk Shabbat both animal and man. To transform relations between human and non-human animals Agamben must attend to the vulnerable, dependent, risky that condition experiences of language. From the Anthropological Machine to Infantile Potentiality begins with a mysterious image found in a Hebrew Bible in Milan’s The Open Ambrosian Library. The image depicts messianic banquet of the righteous on the “the last day” but instead of human faces, the righteous are represented with animal heads—“the eagle’s fierce beak, the red head of the ox and the lion’s head.” For Agamben, this image stands as a promise that, the last day, relations between “on animals and men will take on a new form, and that man himself will be reconciled
Developed across Infancy and History (1978), Language and Death (1982), The Idea of Prose (1985) and Remnants of Auschwitz (1998), “infancy” describes an experience of language beyond the logic of inclusive exclusion, an experience of potentiality rather than violent exposure. Agamben’s recurrent figure of infantile potentiality is the axolotl, or “Mexican walking fish,” an amphibian that retains juvenile characteristics (gills) even after the development of adult traits (lungs and reproductive organs). With this figure of an “eternal child,” Agamben suggests that a new relation between human and non-human animals might emerge via a new childlike experience of language. While the axolotl is a curious and clarifying figure, in this essay, I argue that the amphibian betrays the limitations of infancy for any Shabbat of animal and man beyond the anthropological machine. On my reading of the axolotl, Agamben conflates infantile potentiality with infantile independence and, in this way, abstracts early experiences of language from important experiences of dependence (like the relation of children to their mothers). While Agamben would like to disconnect the constitution of language from its dependence on violence (against non-human animals), his attempt to locate language in a radical independence bears a violence of its own. Instead of jamming the anthropological machine, infancy re-functions it. If Agamben is to provide more than critical offerings for the field of critical animal studies, I argue that he must more thoroughly “risk [himself] in the emptiness” of a Shabbat both animal and man. To transform relations between human and non-human animals Agamben must attend to the vulnerable, dependent, risky that condition experiences of language. From the Anthropological Machine to Infantile Potentiality The Open begins with a mysterious image found in a Hebrew Bible in Milan’s Ambrosian Library. The image depicts “the messianic banquet of the righteous on the last day” but instead of human faces, the righteous are represented with animal heads—“the eagle’s fierce beak, the red head of the ox and the lion’s head.” For Agamben, this image stands as a promise that, “on the last day, relations between animals and men will take on a new form, and that man himself will be reconciled
JCAS-2011-Vol-X1-Issue-1-2Continental-Philosophical-Perspectives-complete-11.docx