Reclaiming the Body: Fem Positions Repoliticized

Abstract

The shift from biopolitics to necropolitics indicated in the title of Part I of this volume initially requires that we clarify what this shift consists of. We argue that the shift from biopolitics to necropolitics is central for understanding the relation between the body and performativity in the time of neoliberal global (necro)capitalism. In order to conceptualize this shift in depth and to fully develop all its consequences for the present status of the body in capitalism, as well as for its performed variants in contemporary performance, theater and dance, we will analyze two exemplary cases.

• 1. The performance “Host” (2015) by Filipino choreographer and dancer Eisa Jocson, who explores the presentation of female bodies and sexuality in the case of female and transgender hostesses in Japanese night clubs.

• 2. The performance “All Eyes on Me” (2015), announced as “Purrr!_Femme!-ance!: Queer Femininities in Action,” a collaborative project conceived by Julischka Stengele (Austria) that brings together different fem, queer and trans positions in order to stage, provoke and question the subjectivities that stand for the reclaiming of marginalized bodies and their political stands. The analysis of each of these two performances, which derive from different historical and political locations, poses a similar set of questions, primarily regarding the situated location of a threshold between sovereign power, governmentality and life, citizens and non-citizens, as well as biopower and necropower. However, the answer varies! Why? Because we stumble upon a threshold that radically defines the difference between biopolitics and necropolitics. This threshold is the racial/colonial divide, which cuts through the present neoliberal global capitalism.