The biopolitical theatre: tracing sovereignty and history in the 2009 Iranian show-trials.
Date
2011-08-26
Authors
Shohadaei, Setareh
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This work looks at the 2009 Iranian show-trials through modern discourses of biopolitics,
sovereignty, and history. I argue that, understood as a theatrical phenomenon, the show
trials are situated within the Foucauldian mode of biopower. The latter entails a shift
from a politics of death to the preservation of the bios. The show-trials also perform a
particularly modern narrative of state sovereignty and teleological history. To consider
them in this way requires a rethinking of Michel Foucault’s theory so as to include
juridico-philosophical discourse within a biopolitical framework. I propose that, as a
performative act, the confessions transform the very thing they are confessing. Through
the work of Jean Baudrillard and Jacque Derrida, I argue that the confessions make
possible a reconceptualization of the political space of sovereignty as simulacrum and
that of the political time of history as hauntology.
Description
Keywords
Biopolitics, Confession, Iran, Green Movement, Show-Trial, Sovereignty, History, Simulacrum, Hauntology, Political Theatre