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The Weight of All Flesh: On the Subject-Matter of Political Economy by Eric L. Santner (review)

The Weight of All Flesh: On the Subject-Matter of Political Economy by Eric L. Santner (review) Review Essays Eric L. Santner, e Th Weight of All Flesh: On the Subject- Matter of Political Economy Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 291 pp. Eric Santner’s e Th Weight of All Flesh is an ambitious and though p t- rovoking work that stages new conversations between psychoanalytic, biopolitical, Marxian and political- theological theories of subjectivity and sovereignty in order to oer ff a powerful account of life under contemporary capitalism. Expanded from Santner’s Tanner lectures, delivered at Berkeley in April 2014, the book lays the groundwork for a political theory of the “flesh”—a “jointure of the somatic and the norma- tive” (24) that sutures human bodies to the structures that enable them to make sense of their being in the world and motivate them to action. In keeping with both psychoanalytic and certain poststructuralist discussions of the relationship between bodies and body politic, this process of suturing produces a surplus— a “virtually real supplement” that “summon[s] on the scene . . . forms and practices of knowledge, power and administration” (23) tasked with managing the surplus and ensuring the continued maintenance of the body’s link to communal Law. This treatment of the flesh emerges directly from Santner’s previous http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Comparatist University of North Carolina Press

The Weight of All Flesh: On the Subject-Matter of Political Economy by Eric L. Santner (review)

Bost, Matthew
The Comparatist , Volume 41 – Nov 1, 2017
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Comparative Literature Association.
ISSN
1559-0887

Abstract

Review Essays Eric L. Santner, e Th Weight of All Flesh: On the Subject- Matter of Political Economy Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 291 pp. Eric Santner’s e Th Weight of All Flesh is an ambitious and though p t- rovoking work that stages new conversations between psychoanalytic, biopolitical, Marxian and political- theological theories of subjectivity and sovereignty in order to oer ff a powerful account of life under contemporary capitalism. Expanded from Santner’s Tanner lectures, delivered at Berkeley in April 2014, the book lays the groundwork for a political theory of the “flesh”—a “jointure of the somatic and the norma- tive” (24) that sutures human bodies to the structures that enable them to make sense of their being in the world and motivate them to action. In keeping with both psychoanalytic and certain poststructuralist discussions of the relationship between bodies and body politic, this process of suturing produces a surplus— a “virtually real supplement” that “summon[s] on the scene . . . forms and practices of knowledge, power and administration” (23) tasked with managing the surplus and ensuring the continued maintenance of the body’s link to communal Law. This treatment of the flesh emerges directly from Santner’s previous

Journal

The Comparatist – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Nov 1, 2017

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