TY - JOUR

T1 - The Necropolitical Spectrum

T2 - Political lives of the surplus dead

AU - Iturriaga, Nicole

AU - Denman, Derek Scott

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This article sets forth a theoretical framework that first argues that necropolitical power and sovereignty should be understood as existing on a spectrum that ultimately produces the phenomenon of surplus death – such as pandemic deaths or those disappeared by the state. We then expound this framework by juxtaposing the necropolitical negligence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the violence of forced disappearances to argue that the surplus dead have the unique capacity to create political change and reckonings, due to their embodied power and agency. Victims of political killings and disappearance may not seem to have much in common with victims of disease, yet focusing on the mistreatment of the dead in both instances reveals uncanny patterns and similarities. We demonstrate that this overlap, which aligns in key ways that are particularly open to use by social actors, provides an entry to comprehend the agency of the dead to incite political reckonings with the violence of state action and inaction

AB - This article sets forth a theoretical framework that first argues that necropolitical power and sovereignty should be understood as existing on a spectrum that ultimately produces the phenomenon of surplus death – such as pandemic deaths or those disappeared by the state. We then expound this framework by juxtaposing the necropolitical negligence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the violence of forced disappearances to argue that the surplus dead have the unique capacity to create political change and reckonings, due to their embodied power and agency. Victims of political killings and disappearance may not seem to have much in common with victims of disease, yet focusing on the mistreatment of the dead in both instances reveals uncanny patterns and similarities. We demonstrate that this overlap, which aligns in key ways that are particularly open to use by social actors, provides an entry to comprehend the agency of the dead to incite political reckonings with the violence of state action and inaction

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Necropolitical spectrum

KW - Surplus death

KW - Necropolitics

KW - Political lives of the dead

KW - Agent dead

U2 - 10.7227/HRV.8.1.2

DO - 10.7227/HRV.8.1.2

M3 - Journal article

VL - 8

SP - 3

EP - 22

JO - Human Remains and Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal

JF - Human Remains and Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal

IS - 1

ER -