Who, in Our Present, Might the Pierre Rivières Be? Political Subjectivation and the Construction of a Collective “We”

Auteurs-es

  • Valentina Antoniol

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7237

Mots-clés :

Pierre Rivière, subjectivation, parrhēsia, confession, speechless, political space

Résumé

This article intends to focus on some of the possibilities for analysis and reflection that emerge from the reading of I, Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, my brother: a 1973 text, edited by Foucault, which develops from the recognition of the potency inherent in the act of speech by the speechless. Pierre Rivière is in fact considered the one who, through but also beyond his terrible deed, has the (entirely political) ability to take the risk of “challenging power.” It is precisely by means of this act that he undertakes a process of desubjection and subjectivation, imposing disruptive and scandalous truths and discourses against other truths and discourses recognized as dominant and more authoritative. Pierre Rivière's Memoir cannot therefore be investigated as a confession; rather, it has to do with parrhēsia, anticipating many of the Foucauldian reflections on the subject, which would not be developed until several years later. Moreover, it does not really concern an isolated individual. The subject Rivière speaks of is one who not only rises up for his own part but also paves the way for the many without a part, thus outlining the possibilities of constructing a collective “we” that aims to conquer a political space. From here the question arises: “Who, in our present, might the Pierre Rivières be?” A question that has nothing to do with the tragic facts of the parricide but which allows us to explore what Pierre Rivière enables us to think and say today.

Biographie de l'auteur-e

Valentina Antoniol

Valentina Antoniol is a Junior Assistant Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Bari Aldo Moro and an associate at the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. For three years, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bologna, in the Departments of Political Science, of History, Cultures and Civilizations and of Architecture. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at Brown University and CUNY, and she held her PhD in Political Theory from the University of Bologna, in joint supervision with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. She serves on the scientific and editorial boards of several journals, including materiali foucaultiani (as co-editor). Her recent research aims to explore the theories of war in Western political thought from the ancient world to the present day. She is also actively working on a project related to Cyber Social Security (SERICS), taking a critical interest in aspects related to social control and user profiling with digital technologies. Valentina Antoniol is the author of various essays and two books: Foucault critico di Schmitt. Genealogie e guerra (Rubbettino, 2024) (Foucault as a Critic of Schmitt. Genealogies and War), and Foucault et la guerre. À partir de Schmitt, contre Schmitt (Les Éditions Mimésis, 2023), (Foucault and War. From Schmitt, Against Schmitt).

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Publié-e

2024-09-01

Comment citer

Antoniol, V. (2024). Who, in Our Present, Might the Pierre Rivières Be? Political Subjectivation and the Construction of a Collective “We”. Foucault Studies, (36), 107–126. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7237

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Special Issue: Foucault’s Legacy in Contemporary Thinking