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Figuring Giorgio Agamben's 'Bare life' in the Post-Katrina works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker

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Abstract
This article explores how Jesmyn Ward's novel Salvage the Bones and Kara Walker's visual essay After the Deluge can be read through the concept of Giorgio Agamben's “bare life” in order to explore the complexities of representing bodies that have been stripped of their political significance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Walker and Ward both situate Katrina within a longer lineage of representation of African American life extending back to slavery, prompting wider debate about the conceptual frameworks that we use in order to describe rupturing incidents that are connected to structural forms of persecution.
Keywords
bare life, Kara Walker, Hurricane Katrina, Giorgio Agamben

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Citation

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MLA
Brown, Holly. “Figuring Giorgio Agamben’s ‘Bare Life’ in the Post-Katrina Works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker.” JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES, edited by Celeste-Marie Bernier and Bevan Sewell, vol. 51, no. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 1–19, doi:10.1017/S0021875816000566.
APA
Brown, H. (2017). Figuring Giorgio Agamben’s “Bare life” in the Post-Katrina works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES, 51(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875816000566
Chicago author-date
Brown, Holly. 2017. “Figuring Giorgio Agamben’s ‘Bare Life’ in the Post-Katrina Works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker.” Edited by Celeste-Marie Bernier and Bevan Sewell. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES 51 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875816000566.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Brown, Holly. 2017. “Figuring Giorgio Agamben’s ‘Bare Life’ in the Post-Katrina Works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker.” Ed by. Celeste-Marie Bernier and Bevan Sewell. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES 51 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1017/S0021875816000566.
Vancouver
1.
Brown H. Figuring Giorgio Agamben’s “Bare life” in the Post-Katrina works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker. Bernier C-M, Sewell B, editors. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES. 2017;51(1):1–19.
IEEE
[1]
H. Brown, “Figuring Giorgio Agamben’s ‘Bare life’ in the Post-Katrina works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker,” JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 1–19, 2017.
@article{7279290,
  abstract     = {{This article explores how Jesmyn Ward's novel Salvage the Bones and Kara Walker's visual essay After the Deluge can be read through the concept of Giorgio Agamben's “bare life” in order to explore the complexities of representing bodies that have been stripped of their political significance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Walker and Ward both situate Katrina within a longer lineage of representation of African American life extending back to slavery, prompting wider debate about the conceptual frameworks that we use in order to describe rupturing incidents that are connected to structural forms of persecution.}},
  author       = {{Brown, Holly}},
  editor       = {{Bernier, Celeste-Marie and Sewell, Bevan}},
  issn         = {{0021-8758}},
  journal      = {{JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES}},
  keywords     = {{bare life,Kara Walker,Hurricane Katrina,Giorgio Agamben}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1--19}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  title        = {{Figuring Giorgio Agamben's 'Bare life' in the Post-Katrina works of Jesmyn Ward and Kara Walker}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875816000566}},
  volume       = {{51}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}

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