Volume 16, Issue 1, Spring 2019
Reading Derrida¡¯s The Beast and the Sovereign
Apple Igrek
Pages 181-199
https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil201861172
Prosthetic Figures
The Wolf, the Marionette, the Specter
There are two concepts of sovereignty in Derrida¡¯s work: the classical form that posits itself as absolute mastery, whether by means of surveillance, technology, or ¡°truth¡±; and the more paradoxical, subversive form inspired by Nietzsche and Bataille that simultaneously inhabits and exceeds the control mechanisms imposed upon it. One of the questions that I will pursue throughout this essay is whether such a distinction is valid. As there is something immeasurable apropos of Derrida¡¯s second concept, I will contend that any distinction between it and the first concept is not only ¡°undecidable¡± but ultimately impossible to make.