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Laying Bare: Agamben, Chandler, and The Responsibility to Protect

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Quigley G., University of Toronto, Gabriel Quigley recently completed his MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto. Gabriel has written several publications on the topics of translation and postmodernity. His research interests include deconstruction t. t.

Analyses/Rereadings/Theories: A Journal Devoted to Literature, Film and Theatre

2015

vol. 3

issue 2

This paper demonstrates the hidden similarities between Raymond Chandler’s prototypical noir The Big Sleep, and the United Nations Responsibility to Protect (R2P) document. By taking up the work of philosopher Giorgio Agamben, this paper shows that the bare life produces the form of protection embodied by Philip Marlowe in Chandler’s novel and by the United Nations Security Council in R2P. Agamben’s theorizing of the extra-legal status of the sovereign pertains to both texts, in which the protector exists outside of the law. Philip Marlowe, tasked with preventing the distribution of pornographic images, commits breaking-and-entering, withholding evidence, and murder. Analogously, R2P advocates for the Security Council’s ability to trespass laws that safeguard national sovereignty in order to prevent “bare” atrocities against human life. As Agamben demonstrates, the extra-legal position of the protector is made possible by “stripping bare” human life. This paper also gestures towards limitations of Agamben’s thought by indicating, through a comparison of these two texts, that bare life produces states of exception as the object of protection rather than punishment.

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1 Analyses/Rereadings/Theories: A Journal Devoted to Literature, Film and Theatre

1 Gabriel Quigley recently completed his MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto. Gabriel has written several publications on the topics of translation and postmodernity. His research interests include deconstruction t. t.

1 Quigley G.

1 University of Toronto

1 2015

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Laying Bare: Agamben, Chandler, and The Responsibility to Protect