The Relation between Dirt Discourse and Biopolitics in Malamud’s Stories

Abstract

This article focuses on notions of ‘dirt’ and diaspora to discuss their relation with biopolitical discourse in Malamud’s The Jewbird and The Mourners from the perspective of left thinkers. Deploying Douglas’s and Bauman’s views, the writer discusses how biopolitics has used the notions of hygiene and dirt to secure its surveillance over the body of its racial other in the West. It is argued that the ‘anti-dirt’ movement, supported by the West to promote Western civilization, affected cultural geography. Therefore, it resulted in the formation of binary structures—such as clean vs. dirty, self vs. other—as well as the social categorization of people. The aforementioned condition leads to the emergence of “homo sacer” figures and the imposition of “bare life”. These figures enjoy no better position than “the inside outsiders” doomed to the status of ‘strangehood’. Consequently, they are subjected to strict exclusionary measures and even death, which is justified in light of their supposed danger to society.

Keywords

• dirt discourse
• biopolitics
• diaspora
• the jewbird
• the mourners