Description
This paper re-examines the concept of biopolitics in the work of Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito in the wake of Covid-19. In a sense, the authors represent two poles in biopolitical literatures. At one extreme stands Agamben's thanato-politics, and at the other, Esposito's 'affirmative bipolitics.' By comparing and contrasting the authors, this paper will explore the shortcomings, as well as insights, of biopolitical frameworks in grasping the pressing political questions posed by the pandemic -- particularly the controversial positions taken by Agamben. Was there an essential tendency within Agamben's homo sacer series that led him to his critical stance on Covid governance? Or was his Covid position an uncritical aberration from his earlier work? The paper turns to Esposito's work on affirmative biopolitics as a way out of the impasse found in Agamben's pre- and post-Covid analyses.
