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The Time of Liberation: Angela Davis's Prison Abolition and Giorgio Agamben's Coming Community

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The Time of Liberation: Angela Davis's Prison Abolition and Giorgio Agamben's Coming Community Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 8-2016 The imeT of Liberation: Angela Davis's Prison Abolition and Giorgio Agamben's Coming Community Amy M. Pommerening Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Pommerening, Amy M., "The imeT of Liberation: Angela Davis's Prison Abolition and Giorgio Agamben's Coming Community" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. 832. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/832 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Graduate School Form 30 Updated 12/26/2015 PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Amy M. Pommerening Entitled The Time of Liberation: Angela Davis's Prison Abolition and Giorgio Agamben's Coming Community For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Is approved by the final examining committee: Leonard Harris Nancy Heitzeg Chair Daniel W. Smith Sandor Goodhart Lee A. McBride To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Thesis/Dissertation Agreement, Publication Delay, and Certification Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 32), this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s “Policy of Integrity in Research” and the use of copyright material. Approved by Major Professor(s): Leonard Harris Matthias P. Steup 7/19/2016 Approved by: Head of the Departmental Graduate Program Date i THE TIME OF LIBERATION: ANGELA DAVIS’S PRISON ABOLITION AND GIORGIO AGAMBEN’S COMING COMMUNITY A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Amy M. Pommmerening In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy i August 2016 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii For Dorothy ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A multitude of people and departments offered intellectual, fiscal, and emotional support to bring this project to fruition. It is in the space that I would like to express my gratitude. No amount or combination of words could adequately express how grateful I am for having the opportunity to learn from and work with Leonard Harris; he is one of the most brilliant, honest, compassionate, and creative people I have ever met. It has been an honor to work on various projects throughout the years. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to all the committee members and advisors of this project: Sandor Goodhart, Nancy Heitzeg, Shaun Hughes, Lee McBride, and Dan Smith. Additionally, I would like to thank the administrators and faculty who developed and supported the Philosophy and Literature program; intellectually unique and rigorous, the program itself allows for a more (academically) experimental experience – one that I value. Many educators, artists, and scholars at institutions I previously attended were integral to my intellectual and social development. This project would not have been iii possible without their brilliance, encouragement, and patience: Junior Burke, Michelle Naka Pierce, Gabrielle Civil, William Meyers, and Robert Grunst. Most importantly, I would like to acknowledge the late Anselm Hollo who handed me a copy of Giorgio Agamben’s The Coming Community in a meeting determining the reading list for an iv independent study I was taking with him. I only wish I would have known the gravity of that gesture at that moment so I could have thanked him before he passed. My time and Purdue University was financially supported through an assistantship at the Humanities, Social Science, and Education Library. Without this position, I never would have been able to attend Purdue University. In this regard, it is important to thank Kay Schurr, Linda Rose, Cindy Yeoman, and RaeLynn Boes. The School of Interdisciplinary Studies – namely Delayne Graham, Susan Curtis, and Venetria Patton – was also instrumental in securing teaching and research funding, which gave me the professional experience necessary as well as the time to complete the dissertation. As key as all these people and departments have been, my family and friends are undoubtedly the fundamental scaffolding. My parents are the most selfless, understanding, hard-working, and loving people I know. I admire and love them and would be lost without them. They have sacrificed so much to give myself, my siblings, and their grandchildren a healthy, stable, well-rounded, and joyous life with many iv irreplaceable memories. I would like to thank Kentucky, Kate, and Laara (as well as Addison and Holden) for all the help, uncontrollable laughter, various forms of support, and patient understanding. Finally, to my other family: Polkey, Annie, Addie, AJ, Adam, Ashleigh, Alex, Izalith, Lisa, Lance, and Tevin. It would be impossible to enumerate the reasons for why I am so grateful to have these people in my life. The wonderful experiences, physical and emotional support, belly laughs, and honesty are incalculable. They have shown me that love and loyalty comes in many (strange) forms and with many colorful expressions. v Hopefully, I can start leaning a little less on my family and friends and start supporting more. v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 i. Imagining the unimaginable ......................................................................................1 ii. Proceedings ..............................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2. ANGELA DAVIS AND PRISON ABOLITION ..................................... 7 i. Introduction ..............................................................................................................7 ii. Prison abolition .......................................................................................................8 ii.a. Prison and the prison industrial complex . ..................................................... 8 ii.a.2. Dehumanization ...................................................................................... 17 ii.b. Abolition ...................................................................................................... .21 iii. Imagination and prison abolition ..........................................................................26 iv. Abolition democracy: positive aspect of prison abolition .....................................31 CHAPTER 3. GIORGIO AGAMBEN AND THE COMING COMMUNITY ............. 34 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................34 ii. Foundation: Aristotle and impotentiality ...............................................................36 iii. Coming community .............................................................................................40 iii.a. Whatever being: overview ........................................................................ 40 vi iii.b. Whatever being: Irreparable ..................................................................... 42 iii.c. Whatever being: Thus ............................................................................... 45 iii.d. Whatever being: outside as transitional space .......................................... 47 iii.e. Whatever being: community ..................................................................... 50 iv. Identity: Agamben and Davis ...............................................................................53 vii Page CHAPTER 4. TIME AND LIBERATION ................................................................... 55 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................55 ii. Time ......................................................................................................................56 iii. Time of liberation ................................................................................................57 iii.a. Agamben: archaeology/genealogy of Western conceptions of time……...57 iii.b. Temporality and the coming community .................................................. 61 iii.c. Temporal structure of Davis’s prison abolition ........................................ 63 iv. Liberation ..............................................................................................................67 iv.a. Prison abolition and indefinite liberation ................................................... 67 iv.b. Agamben and religious traditions .............................................................. 71 v. Imagination revisited .............................................................................................76 vi. Political Ontology ................................................................................................81 CHAPTER 5. RESISTENCE, LAW, AND THE STATE ............................................. 83 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................83 ii. Political prisoners and the state .............................................................................86 iii. Resistance: Black liberation and the law .............................................................89
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