The Royal Remains

The People's Two Bodies and the Endgames of Sovereignty

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Religious, Christianity, Church, Church History
Cover of the book The Royal Remains by Eric L. Santner, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Eric L. Santner ISBN: 9780226735344
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: March 15, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Eric L. Santner
ISBN: 9780226735344
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: March 15, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

"The king is dead. Long live the king!" In early modern Europe, the king's body was literally sovereign—and the right to rule was immediately transferrable to the next monarch in line upon the king's death. In The Royal Remains, Eric L. Santner argues that the "carnal" dimension of the structures and dynamics of sovereignty hasn't disappeared from politics. Instead, it migrated to a new location—the life of the people—where something royal continues to linger in the way we obsessively track and measure the vicissitudes of our flesh.
 
Santner demonstrates the ways in which democratic societies have continued many of the rituals and practices associated with kingship in displaced, distorted, and usually, unrecognizable forms. He proposes that those strange mental activities Freud first lumped under the category of the unconscious—which often manifest themselves in peculiar physical ways—are really the uncanny second life of these "royal remains," now animated in the body politic of modern neurotic subjects. Pairing Freud with Kafka, Carl Schmitt with Hugo von Hofmannsthal,and Ernst Kantorowicz with Rainer Maria Rilke, Santner generates brilliant readings of multiple texts and traditions of thought en route to reconsidering the sovereign imaginary. Ultimately, The Royal Remains locates much of modernity—from biopolitical controversies to modernist literary experiments—in this transition from subjecthood to secular citizenship.
 
This major new work will make a bold and original contribution to discussions of politics, psychoanalysis, and modern art and literature.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"The king is dead. Long live the king!" In early modern Europe, the king's body was literally sovereign—and the right to rule was immediately transferrable to the next monarch in line upon the king's death. In The Royal Remains, Eric L. Santner argues that the "carnal" dimension of the structures and dynamics of sovereignty hasn't disappeared from politics. Instead, it migrated to a new location—the life of the people—where something royal continues to linger in the way we obsessively track and measure the vicissitudes of our flesh.
 
Santner demonstrates the ways in which democratic societies have continued many of the rituals and practices associated with kingship in displaced, distorted, and usually, unrecognizable forms. He proposes that those strange mental activities Freud first lumped under the category of the unconscious—which often manifest themselves in peculiar physical ways—are really the uncanny second life of these "royal remains," now animated in the body politic of modern neurotic subjects. Pairing Freud with Kafka, Carl Schmitt with Hugo von Hofmannsthal,and Ernst Kantorowicz with Rainer Maria Rilke, Santner generates brilliant readings of multiple texts and traditions of thought en route to reconsidering the sovereign imaginary. Ultimately, The Royal Remains locates much of modernity—from biopolitical controversies to modernist literary experiments—in this transition from subjecthood to secular citizenship.
 
This major new work will make a bold and original contribution to discussions of politics, psychoanalysis, and modern art and literature.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book The Wandering Mind by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Religious Bodies Politic by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Land and Wine by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book God Without Being by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Reel to Reel by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Wealth, Commerce, and Philosophy by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Making Marie Curie by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Swimming Science by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Legal Logic by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book A New Map of Wonders by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Thinking About History by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book The Cholera Years by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Secular Powers by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime by Eric L. Santner
Cover of the book Kurt Schwitters by Eric L. Santner
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy