In the Antechamber of Power : Sovereign Divisibility from Schiller to Schmitt

Bradley, A. (2023) In the Antechamber of Power : Sovereign Divisibility from Schiller to Schmitt. Political Theology, 24 (1). pp. 98-114. ISSN 1462-317X

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Abstract

In this article, I offer an architectonic of what Carl Schmitt calls the “antechamber of power from Friedrich Schiller, through Franz Kafka, to Walter Benjamin. To summarize my argument, I contend that the “antechamber of power” may always have been a supplementary space within the conceptual imaginary of sovereignty, but Schiller, Kafka, Benjamin, and Schmitt re-imagine it as the privileged space of an originary partage, sharing or division of power. If Jean Bodin defines sovereign power as “indivisible,” I instead trace the self-division of sovereignty into what Jacques Derrida famously calls “plus d’un” places of power. In a series of readings of philosophical, historical, and literary representations of the antechamber, I show how the allegedly private chamber of power occupied by the sovereign alone constitutively divides or itself into a series of new political antechambers occupied by a new class of political bodies: Schiller’s counsellor, Kafka’s bureaucrat, Benjamin’s clerk.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Political Theology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Subjects:
?? antechamberschillerkafkabenjaminschmittdantesovereigntysociology and political sciencereligious studies ??
ID Code:
174464
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Aug 2022 13:55
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
14 Nov 2023 14:15