Lupine and zig-zag lines: queer affects in Alain Guiraudie’s L’inconnu du lac and Rester vertical

In this article I investigate how a theory of becomings-animal operates in a number of contemporary queer French films by director Alain Guiraudie (L’inconnu du lac (2013) and Rester vertical (2016)). In particular I explore how a becomings-animal’s association with a Deleuzian theory of affect enhances our understanding of queer intimacy. The aim of this article is to reposition queer intimacy as an ontology outside – outside synthetic and vertical lines of filiation and kinship and inside the disjunctive lines of the outside (what is irregular, random, rural, cosmic). Drawing at first on intimacy as an ontological non-relationality (Bersani 2008; 2009) and on the idea of separation as an ontological necessity of queer intimacy (John Paul Ricco 2017), I want to rethink queer intimacy as exposure outwards – an intimacy to and towards. Within this exteriorization of intimacy, my methodology will rely on the affective power of a Deleuzian theory of lines

Nietzsche on Film

This is the final version of the article. Available from Edinburgh University Press via the DOI in this record.This article tracks the many appearances of Friedrich Nietzsche throughout the history of cinema. It asks how cinema can do Nietzschean philosophy in ways that are unique to the medium. It also asks why the cinematic medium might be so pertinent to Nietzschean philosophy. Adhering to the implicit premise that, as Jacques Derrida once put it, ‘there is no totality to Nietzsche's text, not even a fragmentary or aphoristic one,’ the essay's mode of argument avoids reductive totalization and instead comprises a playful sampling of variously Nietzschean manifestations across dissimilar films. It begins with an extended account of Baby Face, a 1933 drama from which the abundant references to Nietzsche were either altered or expunged ahead of theatrical release. It then maps some of the philosophical consistencies across two genres in which characters read Nietzsche with apparent frequency: the comedy and the thriller. While comedies and thrillers both treat Nietzsche and his readers with suspicion, and do so for perceptive historical reasons, the essay then asks what an affirmatively Nietzschean film might look like. It explores this possibility through a discussion of cinematic animation in general and then more specifically via several critically familiar films that self-consciously evolve their aesthetic through Nietzsche's philosophy. The essay concludes by affirming Béla Tarr's final film as one of the medium's greatest realizations of a Nietzschean film-philosophy. The Turin Horse, released in 2011, is exemplary because it takes Nietzsche as a narrative premise only to sublate that premise into a unique visual style

The Profanation of Revelation: On Language and Immanence in the Work of Giorgio Agamben

This essay seeks to articulate the many implications which Giorgio Agamben’s work holds for theology. It aims therefore to examine his (re)conceptualizations of language, in light of particular historical glosses on the ‘name of God’ and the nature of the ‘mystical’, as well as to highlight the political task of profanation, one of his most central concepts, in relation to the logos said to embody humanity’s ‘religious’ quest to find its Voice. As such, we see how he challenges those standard (ontotheological) notions of transcendence which have been consistently aligned with various historical forms of sovereignty. In addition, I intend to present his redefinition of revelation as solely the unveiling of the ‘name of God’ as the fact of our linguistic being, a movement from the transcendent divine realm to the merely human world before us. By proceeding in this manner, this essay tries to close in on one of the largest theological implications contained within Agamben’s work: the establishment of an ontology that could only be described as a form of ‘absolute’ immanence, an espousal of some form of pantheism (or perhaps panentheism) yet to be more fully pronounced within his writings

Thinking through Errance: Journeying and Waiting among African Travelers in Quito and Dakar

RESUMEN: A partir del cambio de milenio, Ecuador se ha convertido en un lugar de paso, pero también de residencia para migrantes de diferentes países del mundo. Mientras que la fuerza de atracción de este país proviene de requisitos migratorios flexibles como resultado de una política de ciudadanía universal, las condiciones económicas no estimulan la posibilidad de quedarse. Este artículo tiene como punto de partida una reflexión previa sobre el concepto errancia que surgió de un acercamiento a las historias de africanos que esperaban en Dakar (Senegal) para continuar el viaje fuera de su continente. Contrastamos esta experiencia con la de otros africanos que han atravesado el Atlántico y han llegado a Quito. Dos opciones se presentan a estos últimos: continuar el viaje hacia Estados Unidos o quedarse. En ambos casos, las políticas migratorias, el valor de los papeles (pasaportes y visas) y las formas de socialidad influyen en su experiencia como viajeros. En el caso de quienes continúan el viaje hacia Estados Unidos,los riesgos de la travesía se convierten en pruebas de aptitud para recibir asilo.ABSTRACT: Since the beginning of the 21st century, Ecuador has been a point of transit but also of residence for migrants from around the world. While the attraction of this country resides in the flexible regulations of migration which stem from its policy of universal citizenship, the economic conditions there do not encourage migrants to stay. The starting point of this article is a previous study of the concept of errance which emerged from listening to the stories of Africans who were waiting in Dakar, Senegal, as they sought a way to leave from the continent from Africa. The article contrasts their experiences with those of other Africans who manage to cross the Atlantic and land in Quito. There are two options available for them: to either continue the journey toward the United States or remain in Ecuador. In both cases, migration policies, immigration papers and socialities are factors which shape their experience as travelers. For those who continue on their journey to the United States, the risks they run become a proof of their worthiness to be granted asylum