Oedipus before COVID-19: An essay on the corporatization of political sovereignty and openings in the pandemic

Abstract

Just as in the tragedy of Oedipus, who witnessed his political power stagger due to the terrible plague which shook Thebes, the COVID-19 pandemic questions some of the tenets of political sovereignty and those who sustain it. This explains the diverse reaction of some international leaders when they attempt to frame the battle against the pandemic in terms of the nation-state: we are at war – we are told – against an invisible enemy. The chants of the ancien régime of sovereignty, that of the armies and the epic wars, attempt to cover up with absurd sounds something which they evidently cannot control by merely strengthening their borders or declaring war.