The language of violence: the political theory of Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

Understanding the problem of violence in contemporary societies is fundamental to any political and social theory that claims to be critical, especially when it is experienced by minority groups. In today’s Brazil, this issue became urgent to social sciences and philosophy researchers. The aim of this essay is to show that the political theory elaborated by the philosopher, essayist and law theorist Giorgio Agamben provides suggestive theoretical and conceptual axes for interpreting the issue of violence as a constituent phenomenon of contemporary societies, and especially of Brazilian society. To show the scope of this approach, we propose to analyze, based on the Agambenian political theory, a particular case of violence, that of Cláudia Silva Ferreira, which occurred in Brazil in 2014.

Keywords

• violência
• linguagem
• giorgio agamben
• teoria política